Stocks retreated somewhat in the first half of the day on Tuesday with the release of reports demonstrating dramatic declines in consumer confidence for February and home prices in the last month of the year.
Consumer confidence fell from 56.5 in January down to 46 in February, its worst level for just short of a year. Economists had expected confidence to slip but the numbers today exceeded predictions by a landslide.
Meanwhile, home prices in 20 cities across the U.S. fell 0.2% for the final month of 2009 according data collected by the Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Index. The newest information is alarming in that it puts the national home price index in a place worse than it was for the same time in 2008 when we were at the height of the recession.
As a consequence to the data, the Dow Jones Industrial average tumbled by 42 points or 0.4 percent to 10.341 while the S&P 500 fell 7 points to 0.6 percent to trade at 1101. The Nadaq was also hit, down 18 points of 0.8 percent to 2224.
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