NEW YORK — Stocks are retreating in early trading as investors cash in some of this month's big gains.

After a 21 percent surge in the Dow Jones industrial average over the course of just 13 days, a dip in personal incomes and a slowdown in personal spending gave investors little reason to extend the rally.

The Commerce Department said Friday personal spending rose 0.2 percent in February, as expected, down from a 1 percent gain in January. Personal incomes fell 0.2 percent.

Many investors are well aware that the economy and the banking system remain troubled. And the next hurdle Wall Street must jump is high: first-quarter earnings.

But the market looks healthier than it's been in a long time. Until this month, the Dow had not risen more than 20 percent from a low since the bear market began.

A big rout Friday would not necessarily derail the market's upswing, said Peter Cardillo, the chief market economist at the brokerage house Avalon Partners Inc. He said he still has some cash on the sidelines, but considers himself fully invested.

"Even if we were to drop 3 or 4 percent, it wouldn't worry me," Cardillo said.

In early trading, the Dow fell 114.45, or 1.4 percent, to 7,810.11.

Broader stock indicators also rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 12.89, or 1.6 percent, to 819.97, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 27.17, or 1.7 percent, to 1,559.83.