The New York equities markets were lower in early afternoon trade on Monday after new data showed existing home sales dropped and inventories were higher in July.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.22 percent lower to 13,349.93, while the Nasdaq Composite had dropped 0.49 percent to 2,564.19 and the S&P 500 fell 0.63 percent to 1,469.99.
The National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales were 0.2 percent lower in July, while inventories were up by 5.1 percent to 4.59 million homes, a new record.
In addition, home prices were down in July for the 12th consecutive time, by 0.6 percent from a year ago to a median price of $230,200.
Sales were up in the West and Northeast but were static in the South and down by 2.2 percent in the Midwest.
Meanwhile home improvement retailer Home Depot (NYSE: HD) added 61 cents to $35.29 after it reached a deal to sell its wholesale unit to a consortium of three private equity firms at a price that was lower than originally planned and requires Home Depot to guarantee $1 billion of the debt the buyers will assume to close the deal.
In other deal news, Taiwan computer manufacturer Acer (TSEC: 2353; LSE: ACID) will pay $170 million for Gateway Inc (NYSE: GTW).
Gateway added 60 cents, or 49 percent, to $1.80.
Elsewhere in the computer sector IBM (NYSE: IBM) added 52 cents to $113.76, but Dell (NAS: DELL; SEHK: 4331) fell 4 cents to $27.70, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) dropped 7 cents to $48.03 and Apple (NAS: AAPL; LSE: ACP; FWB: APC) was down $1.66 to $133.64.