NEW YORK - Wall Street stocks retreated Wednesday, shrugging off good earnings from retailers and consolidating recent market records.

"This has been a week where we're trying to digest the gains we've had," said Art Hogan of National Securities, adding that there was no clear catalyst for the market's retreat.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.6 percent at 35,931.05. The blue-chip index is down 1.4 percent from its most recent record on November 8.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.3 percent to 4,688.67, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also declined 0.3 percent to 15,921.57.

Real estate projects started last month dropped 0.7 percent to a lower-than-expected level, according to US government data that showed single-family home construction was especially weak.

The housing starts data was offset somewhat by a rise in permits, an indicator of projects in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, retailers Target, Lowe's and TJX -- owner of TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods -- all reported solid quarterly earnings, reinforcing the case that US consumers were upbeat despite higher inflation after Walmart and Home Depot released similarly good results Tuesday.

Among individual companies, Visa slumped 4.7 percent after Amazon announced it would stop accepting payments in the UK made with Visa credit cards, blaming the move on high fees.

AFP