The sell-off in gold, silver and other commodities, earnings warning from Wal-Mart and continued rumors related to hedge fund losses overpowered other news in the market. The averages were down more than 1% except that the tech stocks heavy Nasdaq was down less than 0.4%.

U.S. Commerce department reported April sales rise of 1.4% from March and 8.7% from a year ago. Gasoline station sales were up 19.8% and sales of non-store retailers were up 12.4%.

The Census Bureau estimated that April retail sales were $344.9 billion, an increase of 1.4% from the previous month and up 8.6% from April 2004. Total sales for the February through April 2005 period were up 7.5% from the same period a year ago. The February to March 2005 percent change was revised from +0.3% to +0.4%.

Building materials reported 8.1% sales growth and Auto sales were up 4.8% from a year ago.

Shares of CUNO Inc, water filtration company surged by $15 ( 29%). 3M has agreed to buy the company for $1.35 billion. 3M plans to pay $72 cash and assume $60 million in debt. 3M believes that global water purification market of $30 billion is growing at 8% a year.

Oil in NY trading fell to $48.85, 16% lower from the peak in April. The Wednesday inventory report showed six-year high inventory as of last week. Oil inventories are now at 329.7 million barrels, 30 million barrels more than a year ago.

JP Morgan says in a research note that it expects imminent restructuring of Dow Jones assets. During the day shares were up 5%. Online properties of Dow Jones are witnessing sustained growth.

Shares of discount retailer Target were 1.75% on 26% rise in quarterly profit. Same-store sales were up by 6.2% on 13% revenue growth.


S&P - DOWN 1.00%
DOW - DOWN 1.08%
NASDAQ – DOWN 0.39%


In Other News

Commerce Department reported April retail sales rise 1.4%, most economists had expected 0.8% rise.

According to Eurostat, Eurozone recorded 0.5% rise in GDP for the region, led by a surprise 1.0% export led growth in Germany for the 1Q. The Netherlands GDP shrank by 0.1% and Italy by 0.5%.Italy suffered a second quarter of declining growth.

U.S. dollar rose across all major currencies, Yen fell 0.7% and Euro fell 0.5%.

In NY trading gold came under pressure on rising dollar, and fell during the day $3.50.

In Asian markets, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, and Mumbai close higher but Tokyo close 0.38% lower on lack of foreign buying. European shares closed higher with Paris up 0.9%, Frankfurt up 0.5% and London up 0.4%.

NTT, Japanese telephone giant, reported 10% profit rise on sale of stake in AT&T wireless and one-time gain in real estate unit sale. The underlying telephone business continues to suffer declining revenue, operating profit and customers.

Sabre Holdings agree to acquire UK travel agency Lastminute.com for $1.08 billion.

Deutsche Telekom reported 1Q profit jump of 60% on growth in wireless subscriber growth in the U.S. and high-speed internet subscriber growth in Europe. However, the net debt rose to Euro 3.1 billion and free cash flow turned negative.