Wall Street closes lower with losses in retail stocks

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) – Wall Street closed lower Thursday as major American retailers lost ground.

The stocks of Macy's, Target and Walmart fell 3.5 percent, 4.4 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively.

Personal spending in November rose 0.2 percent, the Commerce Department said, failing to meet expectations of 0.3 percent.

Durable goods orders fell by 4.6 percent in November, marking the first decline in the last five months, the agency said.

The weak data could point to disappointing holiday sales for retailers, which caused investors to take a sell-off position on department stores, according to analysts.

At the final bell, the Dow was down 23 points to 19.918 and the S&P was down four points to 2,260.

The Nasdaq was lower 24 points at 5,447.