Stocks fell Friday, the fourth consecutive day of declines, as investors considered weak economic reports in the U.S. retail and consumer sectors. In U.S. economic news, July retail sales gained 0.4 percent, but much of the advance was due to auto sales. Several big retailers reported weak sales. A second report showed that consumer sentiment rose slightly in early August but remains relatively weak. A third report said July consumer inflation rose slightly, ending a 3-month streak of declines. In company news, IBM said it will buy software firm Unica for $480 million, offering a huge 120 percent premium above Unica's most recent stock price. General Motors (GM) is expected to announce an initial stock offering (IPO) early next week to make the company public again-one day after the automaker announced its fourth chief executive in 18 months. The U.S. dollar rose versus the euro and fell versus the yen. Light sweet crude oil for September delivery fell 35 cents to $75.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures fell 10 cents to $1,216.60 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 16.80, or 0.2 percent, to 10,303.15. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 4.36, or 0.4 percent, to 1,079.25. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 16.79, or 0.8 percent, to 2,173.48.
