(Reuters) - Homebuilder sentiment ebbed in April for the first time in seven months as prospective buyers remained hesitant to pull the trigger, the National Association of Home Builders said on Monday. The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market index slipped to 25 from 28 in March, shy of economists' expectations for the index to hold steady at 28.

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(Reuters) - Retail sales showed unexpected vigor in March as Americans shrugged off high gasoline prices and bought a range of goods, suggesting economic growth in the first quarter was probably not as weak as many had feared. Retail sales increased 0.8 percent, the Commerce Department said on Monday, after rising 1.0 percent in February.

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(Reuters) - Citigroup Inc's quarterly profit beat Wall Street estimates as the third-largest bank cut expenses and benefited from an improved economy and more active capital markets after a dismal end to 2011. Profit was boosted by loan growth in the lender's core Citicorp division, strong fixed income performance, and continued improvement in credit quality that allowed Citigroup to release reserves set aside for bad loans.

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(Reuters) - Singapore state investor Temasek TEM.UL bought $2.3 billion worth of ICBC's (1398.HK) Hong Kong-listed shares from seller Goldman Sachs (GS.N), piling into three of China's top four banks and raising its bet on the world's second-biggest economy. Temasek was burned by its financial industry exposure in 2008, hit by stakes in large European and U.S. banks that plunged in the crisis. But it has kept nearly 40 percent of its investment portfolio in banks it feels are strong and are capturing emerging market growth.

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(Reuters) - Jury selection in a high-stakes dispute over smartphone technology between Oracle Corp and Google Inc kicked off on Monday morning, starting a trial that could reveal financial details about the Android operating system. Oracle sued Google in August 2010 over seven patents and copyright claims for the Java programming language. According to Oracle, Google's Android operating system tramples on its intellectual property rights to Java, which it acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems.

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(Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Tuesday as the market showed signs of fatigue after major indexes hit multiyear highs. Financial and energy stocks were the biggest decliners. But Apple Inc (AAPL.O) was up 1.8 percent near $629.59, supporting the Nasdaq as it outperformed other indexes. Wall Street had a strong start to the second quarter on Monday, with the S&P 500 marking its highest close since mid-May 2008. The Dow scored its highest finish since December 31, 2007, while the Nasdaq once again closed at levels not seen since late 2000.

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(Reuters) - Auto sales continued a robust pace in March, boosted by consumers with more confidence in a recovering U.S. economy who want to buy fuel-efficient cars and trucks in the face of rising gasoline prices. Ford Motor Co's U.S. sales rose 5 percent from a year earlier. Ford, No. 2 in the U.S. market, reported its best March for new auto sales in five years on strong sales of small cars such as its Focus sedan and its F-Series pickup trucks. Chrysler Group LLC, No. 4 in U.S. sales, reported a 34 percent increase, led by its Chrysler brand, which had a sales increase of 70 percent.

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(Reuters) - New orders for U.S. factory goods rebounded in February and firms increased orders for capital goods, suggesting manufacturing held on to some momentum early in the year. The Commerce Department said on Tuesday new orders for manufactured goods rose 1.3 percent, just below the 1.5 percent gain expected by private forecasters in a Reuters poll. Growth in the U.S. economy likely slowed in the first quarter as weaker restocking of companies' shelves kept factories less busy.

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(Reuters) - One of London's most prominent bankers was fined 450,000 pounds ($720,000) for passing on inside information in a case that will embarrass his employer J.P. Morgan Cazenove and which marks a push by British regulators to target high-profile figures. Top "rainmaker" Ian Hannam resigned on Tuesday, to fight the fine imposed by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in relation to 2008 emails that contained information about one of his clients, Heritage Oil (HOIL.L).

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(Reuters) - Daimler (DAIGn.DE) said on Tuesday that sales of its Mercedes-Benz luxury brand rose 11 percent to 131,334 vehicles in March, extending the increase in year-to-date deliveries to 313,902. "The great customer response on the new models makes me very confident that we will achieve our goal to post a new sales record in 2012," sales chief Joachim Schmidt said in a statement.

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