Stocks drop on retail woes
U.S. stocks moved lower on the opening, following news of weak retail sales in April.
At 10:10 a.m. ET the Russell 2000 had lost 7.15 points, or 0.86 percent, to 827.62. Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 54.77 points, or 0.41 percent, to 13,308.10.
Bad weather and an early Easter created the perfect storm that resulted in weak sales by U.S. retailers in April. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) reported a worse-than-expected 3.5% decline in same-store sales, while Minneapolis-based Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) said that its April same-store sales declined more than the previously forecast range of between 2% and 4%.
In economic news, the U.S. trade deficit increased to $63.9 billion, the Commerce Department said before the start of trading. The greater-than-expected increase was due to higher oil imports.
The following were the most actively traded companies in Thursday's trading among those with market capitalizations under $500 million:
| Price at | % | ||||||
| 10:01 et | Change | Change | Volume | Year High | Year Low | ||
| DNDN (DNDN) | DENDREON CORP | 5.20 | -1.13 | -17.9% | 19,174.0k | 25.25 | 3.57 |
| HSOA (HSOA) | HOME SOLUTIONS AMER INC | 6.18 | +0.93 | +17.8% | 2,290.7k | 14.14 | 4.29 |
| RTH (RTH) | RETAIL HOLDRS TR | 105.16 | +0.13 | +0.1% | 1,810.1k | 106.72 | 87.12 |
| MAMA (MAMA) | MAMMA COM INC | 5.37 | +0.13 | +2.5% | 778.4k | 8.60 | 0.86 |
| XHB (XHB) | STREETTRACKS SER TR | 34.28 | -0.42 | -1.2% | 736.7k | 41.31 | 28.78 |
| XRT (XRT) | STREETTRACKS SER TR | 43.26 | -0.16 | -0.4% | 651.1k | 44.49 | 34.58 |
| MRGE (MRGE) | MERGE TECHNOLOGIES INC | 5.93 | +0.71 | +13.6% | 576.0k | 14.03 | 3.62 |
| VSTA (VSTA) | VISTACARE INC | 9.82 | +0.51 | +5.5% | 567.8k | 14.73 | 8.13 |
| FVE (FVE) | FIVE STAR QUALITY CARE INC | 7.99 | -0.52 | -6.1% | 565.4k | 12.46 | 8.50 |
| TRU (TRU) | TORCH ENERGY ROYALTY TRUST | 8.05 | +1.68 | +26.4% | 451.8k | 10.52 | 6.00 |
