NEW YORK – Wall Street stocks finished decisively lower on April 15, despite solid US economic data, in a decline blamed on worries over conflict in the Middle East.

Equities had opened positively following solid retail sales data, amid early hopes that the conflict between Israel and Iran might ebb after a weekend siege by Iran was mostly repelled by air defences.

But Israeli officials kept up confrontational rhetoric, with Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi vowing a response.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished at 37,735.11, down 0.7 per cent after notching a 650-point fall from its peak earlier in the session.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 1.2 per cent to 5,061.82, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.8 per cent to 15,885.02.

Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare pointed to the geopolitical situation as a factor in the April 15 drop, but also noted that the retreat follows a period of market strength.

“If you set aside what’s happening geopolitically, there have been calls for a while now that the market’s due for a pullback,” Mr O’Hare said.

“So there’s an overdue period of consolidation kicking in here, which has been helped along by the geopolitical uncertainty, rising interest rates, and again, the technical deterioration in the market.”

Among individual companies, Goldman Sachs rose 2.9 per cent after reporting better-than-expected profits on a strong performance across most businesses.

Tesla slumped 5.6 per cent after Mr Elon Musk’s electric vehicle (EV) company announced it was cutting more than 10 per cent of its global headcount amid rising competition for EVs.

Salesforce plunged 7.3 per cent following reports it is in talks to buy technology company Informatica. Informatica lost 6.4 per cent.

Trump Media & Technology Group, the social media company associated with the former president and current US Republican White House nominee, dove 18.4 per cent after announcing plans to issue more shares. AFP