New York – Nervous investors collected profits and sent stocks lower Tuesday, wiping out an early advance amid conflicting signals about inflation and consumer spending.
The market pulled back when the Dow Jones industrials reached an eight-month high shortly after midday.
Investors have been uneasy for months about inflation and soaring oil prices, and their anxiety was fed by a Labor Department report that energy costs led a jump in wholesale prices last month. Many decided the safest strategy was to sell.
Meanwhile, a better-than-expected monthly retail sales report that might have supported the market was undercut by a weak sales outlook from Target Corp., which also clouded strong results at Home Depot Inc.
Wall Street’s retreat also came despite crude oil settling below $57 a barrel for the first time since June 30. A barrel of light crude dropped 71 cents to $56.98 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
At the close of trading, the Dow was down 10.73, or 0.1 percent, to 10,686.44. During the session, the Dow rose nearly 45 points to reach its highest level since March 15.
Broader stock indicators also gave up their gains. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index finished down 4.75, or 0.39 percent, at 1,229.01, and the Nasdaq composite index declined 14.21, or 0.65 percent, to 2,186.74.
The Bloomberg Colorado Index, a price- weighted measure of companies based in the state, fell 2.16 to 307.40. Declining stocks outnumbered those that climbed by 75 to 29, with six unchanged.
Bonds rose, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note tumbling to 4.56 percent from 4.61 percent late Monday.
The dollar was mostly lower against other major currencies, and gold prices were little changed.
Investors had little reaction to comments from Federal Reserve chairman nominee Ben Bernanke, who told a Senate committee that his top priority will be maintaining current Chairman Alan Greenspan’s policy of fighting inflation.
