Retails sales unexpectedly fell in March as investors continued to worry about the pace of the economy's recovery. Banking and biotech stocks bucked the early morning sell-off with the Dow losing 60 points to 7997 while Nasdaq fell 8 points to 1644.

On the upside

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) reported earnings that beat expectations and reaffirmed its full-year outlook.

Shares of Dendreon (Nasdaq: DNDN) nearly tripled in value after the biotechnology company announced positive safety results for its prostate cancer drug treatment.

The financial services sector continued to rally with shares of E*Trade (Nasdaq: ETFC), Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) extending yesterday's gains.

On the downside

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) posted better than expected results late yesterday, but the financial services company also announced plans to raise $5 billion which would dilute existing shareholders.

A Stifel Nicolaus analyst downgraded American Express (NYSE: AXP) whose shares gave up some of its recent gains.

A Wall Street Journal report downplayed the possibility of a sale of eBay's Skype unit (Nasdaq: EBAY) to a private equity consortium.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 6 points to 461.