Stocks fall midday; S&P near record high

Inflation concerns threatening Dow's winning streak

Trader Gordon Charlop, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. World stock markets shared Wall Street's ebullience and turned higher Thursday March 14, 2013 ahead of the release of U.S. jobless claims.

NEW YORK — U.S. stock markets are lower in midday trading, threatening to end the longest winning streak for the Dow in nearly 17 years.

A spike in gas prices drove up a measure of U.S. consumer costs in February by the most in more than three years.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 31 points to 14,508 at noon today. That's a decline of 0.2 percent. The Dow rose for the tenth straight day Thursday to close at 14,539. The last time the Dow knocked out 10 straight days of gains was November, 1996.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell nearly two points to 1,561. It's four points away from the record high it reached in October, 2007.

The Nasdaq composite fell six points to 3,252.