New York – Interest-rate worries sent share prices lower Tuesday on Wall Street after strong consumer-confidence and home-sales data signaled that the economy is holding up better than expected and suggested that the Federal Reserve has room for more rate increases.
Crude-oil prices fell following an announcement by President Bush that he would waive regional clean-air specifications for summer-grade gasoline to attract more imports of fuel to the United States.
Bush also said he would halt deposits of oil to the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve until fall, but analysts said the measure would have little effect on crude and gasoline prices.
Light, sweet crude for June delivery settled 45 cents lower at $72.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, coming on the heels of a 4.48-cents-per-gallon decline in May gasoline futures, which finished at $2.13 a gallon.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 53.07, or 0.5 percent, to 11,283.25.
Broader stock indicators also fell. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index slipped 6.37, or 0.5 percent, to 1,301.74, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 3.08, or 0.1 percent, to 2,330.30.
Bond prices drifted lower, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note edging up to 5.07 from 4.98 percent late Monday.
The dollar was stable against other major currencies, while gold rose.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies slipped 1.32, or 0.2 percent, to 764.82.
Declining issues outpaced advancers by nearly 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume of 2.48 billion shares exceeded Monday’s total of 2.33 billion.
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average added 0.33 percent.
Britain’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.2 percent, Germany’s DAX index was unchanged, and France’s CAC-40 rose 0.3 percent.
