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Date: Tuesday 29 Apr 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - US stocks remain on the back foot after consumer confidence fell to its lowest level in five years.

The Conference Board’s confidence index fell to 62.3, its lowest level since March 2003, down from 65.9 in March.

Meanwhile, further evidence of the perilous state of the US housing market came as the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index showed its biggest ever year-on-year decline.

The index, which measures house prices in 20 US metropolitan areas, fell 12.7% in February from a year earlier. In February alone prices fell 2.6%.

The Dow Jones is trading 44 points lower at 12,827 and the S&P 500 is 7 points easier at 1,388. The NASDAQ Composite is down 9 at 2,414.

Drugmaker Merck leads the market lower. The company said late Monday that the US Food and Drug Administration needs more information on its cholesterol drug candidate Cordaptive.

Mining stocks are out of favour, as the dollar’s rally drives down the price of gold and copper. Freeport-McMoRan leads the sector’s retreat.

Builder DR Horton falls on the gloomy housing data while Masco, which makes taps and paints, is also a victim of the housing slump, Masco’s profits virtually evaporated in the first quarter falling to $2m from $143m a year earlier.

On the bright side, glassmaker Corning is on the up after demand for televisions helped first quarter earnings per share come in 2 cents above analysts’ expectations at 44 cents.

Office Depot was another to produce results that pleasantly surprised the market. Although the stationer’s first quarter earnings per share fell to 29 cents, this still beat the market consensus of 22 cents.