US stocks fall

Wall Street retrenched today as the trade deficit widened and oil prices surged, while a weak quarterly report from Dell also disheartened the US market.

The Commerce Department reported that the trade deficit, the imbalance between what America sells abroad and what it imports, is running higher than last year’s all-time record. The trade deficit rose to 58.8 billion dollars in June, an increase of 6.1% from the May deficit of 55.4 billion dollars.