LONDON (ShareCast) - US stocks are slightly lower in midday trade as investors pause after the recent rally and concentrate on economic news.
The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of consumer confidence for June rose to 69.0 from May's
68.7 and slightly below economists' expectations of 69.5.
The government said import prices rose 1.3% in May, which was helped by an 8.3% jump in petroleum prices. It revised April's increase to 1.1%. Export prices increased 0.6% in May, compared to the 0.4% rise in April.
Across the markets, the Dow Jones (news) is down 18 points to 8752 with the Nasdaq (NASDAQ: news) falling 24 points to 1837. The S&P 500 is down 5 points.
In company news, UK bank Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) has sold its fund management arm, Barclays Global Investors, to US asset manager BlackRock (NYSE: BLK - news) for £8.1bn ($13.5bn).
BlackRock will pay $6.6bn in cash and the rest in shares for the unit which includes the iShares business, which Barclays had previously agreed to sell to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners in April for $4.4bn.
Meanwhile, hopes of a global economic revival were raised again after China's May factory output rose more than expected and its retail sales growth also accelerated.
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