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.

The New York equities markets were mixed for the week, but new home sales data on Friday that raised hopes that interest rates might peak sooner than has been anticipated sent the indexes up on the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.3 for the day to 11,297.98, but only managed an 0.2 percent gain for the week. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.4 percent on Friday and rose 0.2 percent for the week, to 2,309.98. The S&P 500 added 0.2 percent on Friday to close at 1,304.22, but declined by 0.2 percent for the week.

In the oil sector, the Amex Oil index was down 0.5 percent for the week as crude oil prices rose and fell. Despite the ups and downs, several oil companies saw gains. Marathon Oil added 1.9 percent to $77.79, while ConocoPhillips advanced by 1.4 percent to $62.20. Gains in both companies came after upgrades by Prudential Equity Group.

In computer-related sectors, Microsoft shook things up when it said Tuesday that it will not release its new Vista operating system until next year. It was another in a series of delays for the new system. Microsoft dropped 2.1 percent for the week to $26.92. Computer makers Gateway and Hewlett-Packard both saw declines as well. Hewlett-Packard lost 2.6 percent to $33.27 and Gateway declined by 1.7 percent to $2.38. On the other hand, Dell gained 4.4 percent on the week to $30.34 after it predicted that its sales will increase due to Asian expansion.

Internet search engines did well on the week. Google added 8.2 percent to $367.65 as the S&P 500 added it to its index. Yahoo gained 5.7 percent to $31.78 after an upgrade from UBS.