U.S. stocks edged down Monday after a plummet in Google, as investors were waiting for Ben Bernanke's first testimony before Congress on economic growth and inflation.

Bernanke, the new Federal Reserve Chairman, will give a testimony in Congress for his perspective on economic growth and inflation on Wednesday.

The Nasdaq shares slid after a plummet in Google Inc, whose price dropped by more than 4 percent to 345.70 dollars. The Barron 's article said Google's stock price could be cut in half this year amid mounting competition from Microsoft Inc. and Yahoo Inc., which respectively fell 30 cents to 26.39 dollars and 47 cents to 32.04 dollars.

Home Depot, the world's biggest fix-it-yourself retailer, is in talks to take a 49 percent stake in Chinese chain Orient Home for 200 million dollars, the Financial Times reported Monday. An official at the Orient Group was quoted in the report as saying " the two parties are still discussing all kinds of possibilities for the deal." Home Depot added 48 cents to 39.70 dollars.

World crude oil prices fell for the fourth day in a session on Monday to their lowest levels this year on better supplies. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, lost 60 cents to 61.24 dollars per barrel.

The Dow Jones industrial average declined 26.73, or 0.24 percent, to 10,892.32. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 4.13, or 0.33 percent, to 1,262.86. The Nasdaq dropping 22.07, or 0.98 percent, to 2,239.81.

Declining issues outpaced advancers by about 5 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, where the volume of 1.37 billion shares lagged the 1.71 billion shares changing hands at the same point Friday.

Source: Xinhua