Consumer confidence drags Wall St down

The Conference Board's index of consumer sentiment fell to 47.7 in October and revealed consumers are increasingly concerned about conditions in the US job market.

That news sent retail and consumer discretionary shares lower.

Profit-taking has also dominated overnight, after the market's recent run-up.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 14 points to 9,882.

The S&P 500 lost three points to 1,063, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gave up 26 points to close at 2,116.

Shares in Britain ended slightly higher with a rally in the energy sector offsetting weakness in banking and mining stocks.

BP's third-quarter profits halved, but it beat market forecasts by a fairly wide margin and its stock gained almost 5 per cent.

The pharmaceutical sector made reasonable gains ahead of third-quarter earnings from a number of big companies later this week.

A survey revealed British retail sales volumes grew at their fastest pace in almost two years this month.

The poll also showed retailers are feeling more optimistic about their prospects than at any time since July 2007.

By the close, London's FT 100 Index had gained nine points to 5,201.

The local share market is expecting a soft start - in futures trading, the Share Price Index 200 is down 21 points to 4,743.

The Australian dollar has eased to 91.5 US cents.

On the cross-rates shortly before 7:30am (AEDT) it was buying 0.6186 euros; 84 Japanese yen; 55.89 pence Sterling; and was worth $1.23 in New Zealand.

Spot gold has edged down to $US1,038.90 an ounce and West Texas crude oil is lower at $US78.80 a barrel.