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Total retail sales slipped 0.2 percent, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday, after a downwardly revised 0.3 percent increase in April.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales falling 0.4 percent from April's previously reported 0.5 percent rise.

In the 12 months to May, retail sales were up 7.7 percent.

Retail sales last month were depressed by a 2.9 percent drop in sales of motor vehicles, the largest decline since February 2010, as a shortage of parts following the earthquake in Japan left inventories lean and prompted manufacturers to raise prices.

Excluding autos, retail sales rose 0.3 percent last month, the smallest gain since July, after rising 0.5 percent in April.

The report was the latest in a series of weak data to show the lull in economic activity extending well into the second quarter. The economy started the year on a soft note beset by bad weather and rising oil prices.

A report earlier this month showed U.S. employers added a scant 54,000 workers to their payrolls in May.

Economists pin much of the recent weakness on high gasoline prices and supply chain disruptions from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and say a new recession is not in the offing.

Receipts at gasoline stations rose 0.3 percent after increasing 1.4 percent the prior month. Excluding gasoline, retail sales fell 0.3 percent after gaining 0.1 percent in April.

The report painted a generally weak picture of consumer spending, with sales at food and beverage stores falling 0.5 percent, while receipts at sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores dropped 0.4 percent. Sales of electronics and appliances fell 1.3 percent, the largest decline since March 2010.

However, clothing store receipts edged up 0.2 percent last month, while sales at building materials and garden equipment suppliers rose 1.2 percent.

Core retail sales, which exclude autos, gasoline and building materials, rose 0.2 percent in May after advancing 0.3 percent in April. Core sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of the government's gross domestic product report.

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, grew at a 2.2 percent annual pace in the first quarter.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani, Editing by Andrea Ricci)

A restructuring of Greece's debt -- either with a bond swap or by extending maturities on existing bonds -- looks increasingly likely to be imposed by European policymakers as a means of sharing the burden of Greece's crisis with the private sector, S&P said in a statement.

"In our view, any such transactions would likely be on terms less favorable than the debt being refinanced, which we, in turn, would view as a de facto default according to Standard & Poor's published criteria," the agency said.

In such a case, S&P added, Greece's credit rating would be lowered to "selective default," or SD, while the ratings on the country's debt instruments would be cut to D.

S&P cut Greece's long-term sovereign credit ratings to CCC, just four steps away from default, from B. The short-term rating was affirmed at C and all the ratings were removed from credit watch.

The outlook on the long-term rating remains negative, however, in a sign that another downgrade is likely in the next 12 to 18 months.

(Reporting by Walter Brandimarte; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Brothers Zvi Goffer and Emanuel Goffer and a third trader, Michael Kimelman, their former partner at trading firm Incremental Capital LLC, chose to go to trial when dozens of other insider trading defendants in the broad probe have pleaded guilty.

The case is part of a wide-ranging insider trading investigation focused on hedge funds and traders, a probe marked by the use of FBI wiretaps. The central defendant in the government's probe is Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, who was convicted last month of insider-related charges, also in Manhattan federal court.

A jury convicted Zvi Goffer, 34, a former Galleon Group trader, of two counts of conspiracy and 12 counts of securities fraud for activities between 2007 and 2009.

Prosecutors said he was a ringleader who paid cash bribes to two Ropes & Gray lawyers to learn what corporate deals the law firm was working on. The lawyers, Arthur Cutillo and Brien Santarlas, have pleaded guilty to criminal charges.

Emanuel Goffer, 32, was convicted on one conspiracy charge and two securities fraud counts. Kimelman, 40, was found guilty of conspiracy and two counts of securities fraud. Kimelman had rejected a plea deal soon before the trial began on May 16.

The jury found that the men traded on advance knowledge about pending mergers involving computer network equipment maker 3Com Corp and Canadian drug company Axcan Pharma Inc.

The jury deliberated for five days. The forewoman stood in court Monday morning and pronounced the verdict.

The convictions carry a maximum possible prison sentence of 25 years for each man.

On May 11, another jury in the same courthouse convicted Rajaratnam, 53. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 29.

Zvi Goffer worked at Galleon for about seven months in 2008.

In both trials, prosecutors relied heavily on dozens of secretly-recorded phone conversations of the defendants and the testimony of some of their former associates.

The case is USA v Zvi Goffer et al, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 10-00056.

(Additional reporting by Basil Katz, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Maureen Bavdek)

In an opinion piece published by Reuters on Sunday, Summers -- a Harvard professor and former Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton -- argued that it would be "premature" to withdraw fiscal support for the economy at the end of 2011.

Summers' comments come as Republican and Democratic lawmakers debate ways to reduce the U.S. deficit and as his former colleagues in President Barack Obama's administration mull a temporary cut in payroll taxes for employers.

Summers said the United States might have faced a double-dip recession if Obama had not agreed to a deal last year with congressional Republicans to extend unemployment insurance benefits and payroll tax cuts for workers.

The deal was part of a wider package that included an extension of Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

"Fiscal support should be continued and indeed expanded by providing the payroll tax cut to employers as well as employees," Summers wrote.

"Raising the share of the payroll tax cut from 2 percent to 3 percent would be desirable as well."

He said the cost would be a little over $200 billion.

"These measures offer the prospect of significant improvement in economic performance over the next few years translating into significant increases in the tax base and reductions in necessary government outlays," he said.

In an interview, Summers offered more details of his idea, saying the $200 billion would cover both the expansion of the tax-cut and its extension through 2012.

He also said the economy would benefit from an extra $100 billion in infrastructure spending over the next several years and recommended additional aid to states and cities.

Summers, who headed the National Economic Council for the first two years of the Obama administration, said that the "greatest threat" to U.S. creditworthiness was a sustained period of slow growth.

"This means that essential discussions about medium-term measures to restrain spending and raise revenues need to be coupled with a focus on near-term growth," Summers wrote.

"Substantial withdrawal of fiscal support for demand at the end of 2011 would be premature."

WHITE HOUSE DEBATE

During much of 2010, Obama's economic advisers wrestled with a debate over whether to shift toward deficit reduction or pursue further fiscal stimulus.

Summers and former White House economist Christina Romer were in the camp arguing that the recession that followed the financial markets meltdown of 2008-2009 was a unique event that required aggressive stimulus to avoid a long period of stagnation similar to Japan's "lost decade" of the 1990s.

Former White House budget director Peter Orszag was among those who cautioned against a further big stimulus that was not coupled with deficit reduction in later years, as he warned of the danger of ballooning debt and deficits.

The payroll-tax cut was enacted late last year just before Summers returned to his teaching job at Harvard University.

He left the administration hopeful that the package would be enough to restore the economy to vigor. Solid payroll growth in the first few months of the year offered reasons for optimism.

In the interview, Summers listed several factors that contributed to the slowdown: the fallout on the global economy from Japan's earthquake, concerns in European debt markets, high oil prices and a deceleration in China's rate of growth.

But he also said the U.S. economy is in a "cycle that has some of the characteristics of what happened in Japan" following the bursting of its asset bubble and that's why it has struggled to regain its stride.

"The economy isn't as strong as I expected last winter," Summers. He said that in post-bubble recessions, such as Japan's in the 1990s and the Great Depression of the 1930s, there is a tendency to assume any pickup in growth means a return to normal growth but recoveries in those cases take much longer.

Separately, Jeff Immelt, chief executive of General Electric and head of Obama's jobs and competitiveness council, said Washington should streamline permitting for construction projects and make it easier for tourists to visit the United States to help boost hiring and spur the economy.

In an opinion piece co-written with American Express chief executive Ken Chenault, Immelt said his panel's "progress report" outlined ways to increase hiring in manufacturing, construction, healthcare, and tourism sectors.

The opinion piece was released by the White House on Sunday ahead of publication in the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan; Editing by Paul Simao)

The flood of U.S. Federal Reserve money that has supported Wall Street and the rest of the U.S. economy for 2-1/2 years will shrink to a trickle with the conclusion of the Fed's bond purchases announced on Friday.

The Fed said it will buy $50 billion of U.S. Treasuries, the final series of government bond purchases that marks the last phase of a $600 billion program launched in November 2010 to prevent recession.

Allied World Assurance Co Holdings (AWH.N) is to buy Transatlantic Holdings (TRH.N) for $3.2 billion in stock, creating a specialty insurer and reinsurer with broader reach and product offering.

Crude fell on Monday, extending WTI's record discount to Brent to almost $20, as growing investor concern about a slowdown in the United States and other industrialized economies combined with rising output from Saudi Arabia.

European shares were up 0.3 percent in early trade as bargain hunters start to look into the debris after six weeks of losses. Concerns over the health of the global economy and the lack of consensus from policymakers on how to tackle Greece's debt crisis were limiting gains.

European policymakers appeared no closer to finalizing an agreement over whether private investors would take part in a restructuring of Greek debt, with Germany sticking to its guns even as the European Central Bank warned of potential market turmoil.

Overnight, data showed China's money growth slowed to a 30-month low in May and banks extended fewer new loans than expected as tighter monetary policy started to bite.

In Japan, core machinery orders unexpectedly fell in April, suggesting a bumpy recovery from the earthquake and tsunami as companies delay capital spending until reconstruction-driven demand materializes.

The Dow and S&P 500 closed out their sixth week of losses on Friday as further signs of a global economic slowdown set the stage for more losses ahead.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 172.45 points, or 1.4 percent, to 11,951.91. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX slid 18.02 points, or 1.4 percent, to 1,270.98. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC tumbled 41.14 points, or 1.5 percent, to 2,643.73 at the close.

For the week, the Dow was down 1.6 percent, the S&P 500 was off 2.2 percent and the Nasdaq was down 3.3 percent.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Dan Lalor)