Stocks lean lower in early trading

Quick Vote

What will you do with your income tax refund?

• Spend it
• Save it
• Not getting a refund

or View results

Photos

10 biggest CEO paychecks

Including salary, bonuses, stock and options, these public company CEOs took home pay packages last year worth up to $104 million.

View photos

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Tech shares tumbled Wednesday morning, dragging down the Nasdaq composite, as investors mulled Intel's quarterly report, while blue-chip stocks were little changed.

The Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 17 points, or 1%.The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) was down 5 points and the S&P 500 (SPX) index eased less than 2 points, or 0.2%.

Economy: Consumer prices posted their first year-over-year decline in more than half a century.

The Consumer Price Index slipped 0.1% in March. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected the CPI to rise 0.1%. The CPI rose 0.4% the prior month.

The core CPI, excluding volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2% in March, beating expectations of a 0.1% increase. The core CPI also rose 0.2% in February.

For the full year, the CPI declined 0.4% - its first annual decline since August 1955.

"It's hard to believe that we've only declined that much," said Dan Cook, senior market analyst at IG Markets in Chicago, adding that he expected the housing crisis to drag down the annual CPI more than it did.

Industrial production fell 1.5% in March, after falling a revised 1.5% in February. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought it would drop 0.9%. Capacity utilization fell to 69.3% from 70.3% in the prior month. Economists thought it would fall to 69.6%.

Another report, the Empire State index improved to negative 14.7 in April from negative 38.2 in March, surprising economists who were looking for a smaller improvement to negative 35.

Later in the day, the Federal Reserve will issue its beige book, a gauge of economic conditions around the nation.

Intel: The chipmaker posted a 55% drop in quarterly profit after U.S. markets closed Tuesday. The results topped Wall Street's estimates, but shares fell 5% Wednesday morning as Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) chose to not issue a formal sales guidance. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company blamed the weak personal computer market for the decline, but said it sees a bottoming of PC sales.

Intel shares fell 4% in early trading.

Companies: EBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) said late Tuesday that it would spin off its Skype unit in an initial public offering. Shares were little changed Wednesday morning.

Swiss bank UBS (UBS) warned of a steep quarterly loss and said it would slash nearly 9,000 more jobs. Shares fell 3.5% in the early going.

The drugmaker Abbott Labs (ABT, Fortune 500) reported that its first-quarter earnings rose about 16%, compared to the year-ago quarter, to 73 cents per share, excluding special items. The company said earnings were fueled by sales of Humira, a treatment for multiple diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, and Xience, a drug-coated stent. Shares fell 4%.

World markets: Stocks in Asia finished mixed. Japan's Nikkei finished lower while shares in Hong Kong ended in positive territory. European markets were lower in afternoon trading.

Oil and money: The price of oil rose 57 cents a barrel to $49.98. The dollar rose against the yen and the euro, but fell versus the British pound.