Wall Street edged lower Tuesday, with the Standard & Poor's 500 Index snapping a seven-day winning streak, but the Dow gained just enough to set yet another new all-time high. The S&P 500 closed within just nine points of its record high.The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.77 points to close at 14,450.06. The S&P 500 shed 3.74 points to finish at 1,552.48. The Nasdaq fell 10.55 points to finish at 3,242.32.U.S. stocks edged lower in early trade on Monday as disappointing Chinese economic data offset last week's historic rally that took the Dow to record highs; however, Wall Street rebounded in yesterday afternoon's trade. The S&P 500 inched closer to a record as the Dow continued to climb towards another all-time high and closed Monday up 50.22 points, or 0.35 percent, at 14,447.29. Data released over the weekend showed China's inflation at a 10-month high in February while factory output and consumer spending failed to beat expectations.According to Bloomberg Businessweek, consumer prices in China rose 3.2 percent last month and for the first two months of the year inflation averaged 2.6 percent. In addition, data released on March 9 showed production increased 9.9 percent in the first two months and retail sales rose 12.3 percent. China's inflation rate hit a 10-month high in February, BBC reported, after the Lunar New Year celebrations. Premier Wen Jiabao, at the parliament's annual session March 5, said China will continue a "proactive fiscal policy" and a "prudent monetary policy" in 2013 to expand the economy by 7.5 percent and keep the consumer price index increase at around 3.5 percent, according to a government report. China recently overtook the U.S as the world's top net oil importer. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that the U.S., previously the world's largest net importer of oil since the 1970s, saw net oil imports drop to 5.98m barrels a day in December, the lowest since February 1992, while China's net oil imports surged to 6.12m b/d, according to Chinese customs.
