US stocks have fallen back slightly after opening higher early on despite better than expected retail sales figures.

Retail sales showed an unexpected rise in February, up by 0.3% on the previous month, according to the Commerce Department. Analysts were looking for a 0.2% fall.

Elsewhere on the economic front, the University of Michigan is due to release its preliminary consumer sentiment index for March.

The Dow Jones is 5 points lower at 10,607, with the Nasdaq down 8 points at 2,360. The S&P 500 is 2 points lower at 1,149.

KKR, the parent company of private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, today announced plans to list its shares in New York.

The IPO would give the group a market capitalisation of $7.5bn, according to a regulatory filing. KKR said it would offer 204.9m common units worth about $2.2bn.

Former bosses at Lehman Brothers have been heavily criticised for employing an accounting "gimmick" that managed to hide the failed bank's insolvency. A year-long investigation into the collapse of Lehman by court-appointed examiner, Anton Valukas, found that ex-chairman and chief executive, Dick Fuld, and senior executives regularly ignored the bank's own risk controls.

The chairman of law firm Jenner & Block decided there had been no systematic wrong-doing, but called the use of the accounting practice known as Repo 105 "inherently improper". That, unknown to investors or regulators, managed to temporarily wipe $50bn of assets from Lehman's balance sheet in 2008, giving the illusion that debt was falling.

Global pharmaceuticals leviathan GlaxoSmithKline has dumped the rest of its holding in former subsidiary Maxygen. Glaxo said it no longer owns any shares in the US-based protein drug developer after selling its entire holding of 1.433m shares.

The shares, which represented around 4.5% of the issued share capital of Maxygen, were held by its wholly owned subsidiaries Glaxo Group Limited and GlaxoSmithKline Services Unlimited.

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