Wall Street stocks pulled back sharply as a surprisingly strong interpretation of consumer sentiment fanned some lingering worries about inflationary pressures.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 130.31 at 7,890.46 at the close.

Declining issues outnumbered advances by a seven-to-three margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 863 up, 2,035 down and 517 unchanged.

NYSE volume totalled 585.62 million shares, against 629.07 million in the previous session.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 20.86 to 1,547.99, and the American Stock Exchange composite index fell 3.75 to 633.59.