Wall Street slips, Wal-Mart biggest drag

US stock fell on Tuesday, dragged down by Wal-Mart's weak results and after a rally that took the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 to record closing highs.

Stronger-than-expected housing data also suggested that the Federal Reserve could have room to raise interest rates sooner rather than later.

US housing starts jumped to their highest level in nearly 7-1/2 years in April and permits soared.

A stream of weak economic data through last week suggested that Fed would wait to see more strength in the economy before raising rates.

Markets have been pushed higher by the fact that there is nowhere else to invest, said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.

Seven of the 10 major S&P 500 sectors were down, with the energy index weighing the most with a 1.04 per cent fall. Exxon Mobil fell 0.68 per cent, making it the biggest drag on the index.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday as the dollar strengthened and on evidence of ample supplies of Middle Eastern oil despite wars in northern Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

At 10:18 a.m. EDT the Dow Jones industrial average was down 11.18 points, or 0.06 per cent, at 18,287.7, the S&P 500 was down 1.28 points, or 0.06 per cent, at 2,127.92 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 5.12 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 5,073.32.

Wal-Mart shares fell 3.7 per cent to $76.98 and were the biggest drag on the Dow and the S&P 500 after the company reported lower-than-expected US same-store sales growth.