Wall street closing

U.S. stocks closed mixed Tuesday, as investors awaited corporate earnings coming later this week. In U.S. economic news, retail sales rose 0.5 percent in December, led by an improvement in auto sales. The index measuring manufacturing activity in New York state was negative for the sixth straight month in January, according to the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Business inventories for November increased 0.3 percent, slightly more than analysts had forecast, according to data released by the Census Bureau. In international economic news, the German government said that the country\'s economy grew by just 0.7 percent in 2012, which was down from 3 percent the previous year. In corporate news, retail stocks were among the biggest winners. Abercrombie & Fitch, JCPenney, Guess, and Macy\'s rose more than 2 percent. The tech sector was dragged lower by Apple, which closed below $500 for the first time since February 2012 amid worries about slowing demand for the iPhone 5. The U.S. dollar gained ground against the euro and the pound, but lost ground versus the yen. Light sweet crude oil dipped 86 cents to $93.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures rose $14.50 to $1,683.90. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 27.57, or 0.20 percent, to 13,534.89. The broader Standard & Poor\'s 500 index moved up 1.66, or 0.11 percent, to 1,472.34. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index dropped 6.72, or 0.22 percent, to 3,110.78