US Stocks: Tuesday's unofficial close

US stocks declined slightly on Tuesday afternoon as record oil prices and economic data showing slower-than-expected growth weighed on the markets.
NYMEX crude oil futures climbed to a fresh record above $51 per barrel amid a prolonged production outage in the Gulf of Mexico three weeks after Hurricane Ivan.
In active trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 51 points, or 0.50 percent, at 10,166. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 2 points, or 0.20 percent, at 1,133. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.66 of a point, or 0.03 percent, at 1,952.