The Commerce Department said Tuesday that retail sales fell 0.2 percent in April, a figure that fell ahead of expectations if slumping auto sales were excluded from the report.

The Dow Jones industrial average slid 44.13 points by close Tuesday to 12,832.18, off 0.34 percent. The Standard and Poor's 500 index fell 0.54 points to 1,403.04, off 0.04 percent. The Nasdaq composite index rose 6.63 points to 2,495.12, up 0.27 percent.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 1,657 stocks advanced, while 1,438 declined on a volume of 1.207 billion shares traded.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 29/32 to yield 3.909 percent.

The euro traded at $1.5481 from Monday's $1.5537 and the dollar traded at 104.70 yen from Monday's 103.94 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei index gained 210.37 points to 13,953.73, up 1.53 percent.

In London, the FTSE 100 index lost 14.30 points to close at 6,206.30, off 0.23 percent.