NEW YORK, Aug 18 — Wall Street stocks dipped early today, extending the market’s fall from the prior session after a strong period in July and early August.

US indices retreated yesterday following mixed retail sales data in a move that analysts described as digesting recent equity gains.

"The market has had a very big move. So what’s happening now is perfectly normal and healthy,” said Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investment.

"Yesterday could have been a really bad, ugly down day. But instead, it was down just a little bit, which shows you underlying strength.” About 25 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2 per cent at 33,897.31.

The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.1 per cent to 4,268.78, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.2 per cent to 12,912.03.

Among individual companies, Dow component Cisco Systems jumped 6.3 per cent as the tech giant reported better-than-expected results and pointed to strong demand, with record orders. — AFP