9:10 am - Dow falls for 5th straight session on grim data

NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street pulled back again Tuesday in quiet trading aheadof the holiday, as another round of reports showed further deterioration in thehousing market and the broader economy. The Dow Jones industrial average finished lower for the fifth straight day,falling 100 points. Tuesday's gloomy data was hardly surprising to jaded investors. And tradingvolume is light this week, which tends to skew the market's movements. "It is a very quiet news week, and much of it has already been priced intothe market," said Ryan Larson, head of equity trading at Voyageur AssetManagement. The reports offered Wall Street no reason to be upbeat, however, and theconcern remains that the economy will keep weakening well into the new year. The Commerce Department reiterated Tuesday that third-quarter gross domesticproduct, a measure of the economy that tallies the value of goods and services,fell at an annual rate of 0.5 percent. The government also said sales of new homes fell in November to the slowestpace in nearly 18 years, while prices of new homes dropped by the biggest amountin eight months. Sales of existing homes keep dropping as well. The National Association ofRealtors said existing home sales fell 8.6 percent to an annual rate of 4.49million in November from a downwardly revised pace of 4.91 million in October.That was more than analysts expected. According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average fell100.28, or 1.18 percent, to 8,419.49. Broader indexes also declined. The Standard & Poor's 500 index shed 8.48, or0.97 percent, to 863.15. The Nasdaq composite index fell 10.81, or 0.71 percent,to 1,513.24. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 6.43, or 1.35percent, to 468.64.