Wall Street plunged Tuesday with the Dow Jones average declining more than 200 points as investors worried the slowing down of consumers spending would drag economic growth.
Shares of Wal-Mart dropped more than 5 percent as the company said its profit outlook would fall below expectations this year as consumers rein in spending.
Home Depot Inc., the world's biggest home improvement chain, added to the slide when it said weakness in the housing market caused quarterly profit to slide.
On Tuesday, the Labor Department reported that wholesale prices increased a larger-than-expected 0.6 percent in July, led by a 2.5 percent increase in energy prices. Wholesale food prices fell 0.1 percent.
Excluding food and energy prices, the core producer price index increased 0.1 percent.
The U.S. trade deficit narrowed unexpectedly by 1.7 percent in June to 58.1 billion dollars, the Commerce Department said. The trade deficit was below the consensus forecast of Wall Street economists of a deficit of 61.3 billion dollars.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 207.61, or 1.57 percent, to 13,028.92. The Standard & Poor's 500 index shed 26.38, or 1.82 percent, to 1,426.54, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 43.12, or 1.70 percent, to 2,499.12.
Source: Xinhua
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