Wall Street traded lower Monday morning on lower-than-expected new homes sales.

The Commerce Department reported Monday that sales of new single-family homes fell by 3.9 percent last month, the slowest sales pace in nearly seven years.

The Dow Jones industrial average declined 36.21 points or 0.29 percent, to 12,444.80. The S&P 500 was down 4.38 points or 0.3 percent to 1,431.73. The Nasdaq composite dropped 1.50 points or 0.06 percent to 2,447.43.

Citigroup Inc. rose 0.5 percent after the Wall Street Journal reported that the bank's executives are putting the finishing touches to a restructuring plan that will involve around 15,000 job cuts out of 327,000 employees.

Dell rose 2.8 percent on an upgrade to buy from neutral at Goldman Sachs.