Major U.S. stock indices closed Tuesday with a drop - By the end of the trading session Dow Jones lost 1.01%, S&P 500 - 0.64%, NASDAQ - 0.18%. European indices also closed the German DAX dropped 0.12%, British FTSE 100 by 0.34% and the French CAC 40 by 0.16%.

Investors were assessing marcrostatistics from the U.S. Specifically, Retail sales in the country in April were weaker than Analysts' forecasts - compared with March, they increased by 0.4%, while it was expected to grow by 0.8%. The reason for the weak results is inflation, which still remains elevated in the U.S, writes investing.com.

A negative factor was the news from The Home Depot that it expects a decline in sales at the end of this year. As a result its shares fell in price by 2%.

Pressure on the European stock exchanges had a decrease in the index of confidence on the German economy in May much stronger than expected - to -10.7 point.

In addition, investors are following the situation around the government debt U.S. government debt - disagreements on this issue at the White House remain unresolved.