NEW YORK (AP) — A weak showing in home sales and more disappointing earnings reports are sending stocks slightly lower on Wall Street.
Stocks had started out higher early Thursday following a strong profit report from Procter & Gamble, but indexes started to weaken in late morning trading after a realtor group reported that the pace of home buying contracts was leveling off.
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That turned the stocks of homebuilders sharply lower. PulteGroup was off 4 percent, giving up an early gain. D.R. Horton and Toll Brothers each fell 3 percent.
In midday trading Thursday the Dow Jones industrial average was off 12 points at 13,065. It had been up 87.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell less than a point to 1,408 and the Nasdaq fell a fraction of a point to 2,981.
