NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street fell early Tuesday after an unexpected drop in retail sales in March tested a notion that the economy is starting to find its footing.
The worries over the retail sales data also overshadowed better-than-expected profit reports from Johnson & Johnson and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Financial stocks showed some of the steepest losses even after Goldman's results came in well ahead of what analysts had been expecting. Other financial companies are due to report quarterly results this week.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's assertion Tuesday there have been "tentative signs" of easing in the recession appeared to contain selling pressure after a five-week surge in the stock market.
In the early going, the focus was on the Commerce Department's report that retail sales fell 1.1 percent in March, the biggest drop in three months. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected an increase of 0.3 percent.
In the first half-hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 93.82, or 1.2 percent, to 7,963.99.
Broader stock indicators also lost ground. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 10.75, or 1.3 percent, to 847.98, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 16.49, or 1 percent, to 1,636.82.
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