Housing Data Put Dow Off 29

Yesterday’s housing-fueled rally didn’t carry over into today’s session, the Wall Street Journal reports, in part because of poor indicators from that same industry. April saw a 12.8% reduction in buildings starting construction; Home Depot dropped 5%. Still, a metric of investor anxiety today fell to its lowest point since September. The Dow was off 29.23 to 8,474.85; the S&P lost 1.58, ending at 908.13. The Nasdaq crept up 2.18 to 1,734.54. (More New York Stock Exchange stories.)