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US stocks fall as market awaits sales data

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US stocks have ended lower as investors looked ahead to a retail sales report that covers the beginning of the critical holiday shopping season.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 52.40 points (0.33 per cent) to 15,973.13 on Tuesday.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 5.75 (0.32 per cent) at 1,802.62, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index declined 8.26 (0.20 per cent) to 4,060.49.

The modest losses came on a fairly quiet day for economic news, said Michael James, managing director at Wedbush Securities.

James said the major economic report of the week would be Thursday’s data on November retail sales.

Expectations are low based on largely anecdotal evidence about mall traffic, he said.

“Is the data going to perpetuate the negative trend?” he said.

“Or are we going to get a glimmer of hope that maybe things aren’t as bad as they seem anecdotally?”

Banking stocks reacted in a mixed fashion to a long-awaited decision by US regulators to place tight controls on banks’ trading their own accounts.

The regulations, known as the Volcker Rule, take effect in 2015.

Goldman Sachs (+1.2 per cent), Morgan Stanley (+1.3 per cent) and JPMorgan Chase (+0.3 per cent) all rose.

Decliners included Citigroup (-0.7 per cent), Bank of America (-0.1 per cent) and Wells Fargo (-0.5 per cent).

General Motors lost 1.2 per cent after appointing Mary Barra to serve as the auto giant’s first female chief executive.

The news follows Monday’s announcement that the US Treasury Department had sold its last remaining shares in GM.

Pharmaceutical wholesaler McKesson shed 1.9 per cent after hedge fund Elliot International, a large Celesio shareholder, withheld support for McKesson’s proposed $US8.3 billion ($A9.14 billion) takeover of Germany’s Celesio unless the bid were raised.

US drug retailer CVS Caremark advanced 1.9 per cent after announcing a joint venture with Cardinal Health to source generic drugs in the US.

Cardinal jumped 3.0 per cent.

Semiconductor firm Broadcom gained 2.3 per cent after raising its guidance for the fourth quarter.

The company now projects revenues of $US2.00-$US2.05 billion, up from the prior forecast of $US1.975 billion.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.80 per cent from 2.86 per cent late on Monday, while the 30-year dropped to 3.83 per cent from 3.89 per cent.

Bond prices and yields move inversely.