U.S. stocks slump despite encouraging economic data

U.S. stocks were in the red Thursday despite a surprise rise in January retail sales.

In mid-afternoon trading the Dow Jones Industrials were down 129.66 points or 1.63% at 7,809.87.

The Nasdaq Composite was off 10.02 points or 0.66% at 1,520.48.

The Standard and Poor's 500 was down 11.00 points or 1.32% at 822.74.

The U.S. dollar was mixed. In mid-afternoon trading in New York the euro was down a touch to 1.2818. The yen was fractionally stronger at 90.38.

The British pound tumbled to 1.4209, while the Swiss franc was little changed at 1.1639.

The Australian dollar was lower at .6485, while the Canadian dollar eased to 1.2520.