A retreat at Wall St.'s start
U.S. markets slightly lower as investors focus on economic reports.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stocks slipped at the open Tuesday, as investors backtracked from the previous session's advance ahead of a slew of key economic reports.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 35.70 to 11,097.55, Charts), the Standard & Poor's 500 (down 3.81 to 1,290.31, Charts) index and the Nasdaq composite (down 5.97 to 2,301.21, Charts) all declined modestly in the early going.

Stocks rose Monday in a broad-based advance fueled by falling oil prices. The gains had left the S&P 500 not far from a 4-1/2 year high hit in January.

After that advance, stocks were weaker early Tuesday, particularly ahead of reports on existing home sales, consumer confidence and the Chicago PMI, a regional reading on manufacturing.

The one early economic report -- a revision of gross domestic product in the fourth quarter -- showed stronger growth than originally reported, in line with expectations. It didn't have much of an impact on stocks in the morning.

Stock declines covered a number of sectors, with 23 out of 30 Dow stocks in the red. However, the declines were modest, with no one stock down even as much as 1 percent.

Oil stocks eroded for a second session, with the Philadelphia Oil Service (Charts) sector index down 0.8 percent in the early going.

U.S. light crude oil for April delivery fell a quarter to $60.75 a barrel in electronic trading, amid a continued waning of concerns about unrest in Iran and how it might impact crude supplies from OPEC's no. 2 oil producing nation.

Treasury prices gained, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to around 4.57 percent from 4.59 percent late Monday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the euro and was little changed versus the yen.

COMEX gold for April rose $2.30 to $559.30 an ounce.

In global trade, major Asian markets ended lower and European markets fell at midday.

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