Tepid economic news weighed the markets down during the midday with the Dow dropping 58 points to 18,554. Nasdaq lost 6 points to 5,221.
Retail sales disappointed by holding steady in July on the heels of an upwardly revised 0.8% gain in June. Strong sales at auto dealers and non store retailers offset a 0.5% drop in department store sales. Because consumer spending is approximately 69% of the nation's economy, the flat sales raised concerns about the economic recovery.
Business inventories rose by a greater than expected 0.2% in June while business sales climbed a healthy 1.2%. At those numbers, it would take approximately 1.39 months for a business to empty its shelves, the shortest amount of time since November 2015.
Producer prices fell a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in July due to lower oil prices. Prices were expected to rise 0.1%. Excluding the volatile food and energy sectors, core producer prices slipped 0.3%. Over the past 12 months, core prices have risen a modest 0.8%.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 7 to 5 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 5 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 fell 4 points to 2,180. Bitcoin lost $4 to $585.
