Wall Street was lower after the Institute of Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index, which fell from 55.8 in August to 54.8 last month, showed that the service sector’s expansion slowed in September.
In addition, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that applications for mortgages were down by 2.7 percent in the week ending 28 September.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.29 percent to 14,006.67 in early afternoon trade, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.16 percent to 2,742.6 and the S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent to 1,543.46.
The airlines sector saw gains as crude oil prices hovered around the $80 per barrel level.
UAL Corp. (NAS: UAUA), the parent company of United Airlines, was up 83 cents to $49.62, while Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) was 51 cents higher to $35.73 and Northwest Airlines (NYSE: NWA) added 35 cents to $18.49 after Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) rated it at “outperform” and assigned a target share price of $23 by the end of next year.
Automakers were mixed after September sales numbers were down over the sector.
General Motors (NYSE: GM) added 80 cents to $37.85 after it said sales were flat last month.
Ford Motor (NYSE: F) dropped 1 cent to $8.56 on its report that sales were down by 21 percent in September, mostly due to a large cut in the number of cars it sold to car rental agencies.
US-listed shares of Toyota Motor (TYO: 7203.T; NYSE: TM; LSE: TYT) were $2.03 lower to $116.20 as its sales were down by 4 percent in September.