NEW YORK, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street fell moderately on Wednesday as technology shares weighed on the market and housing start dropped sharply.

    Salesforce.com Inc., the largest seller of Web-based customer-management software, forecast fourth-quarter profit of 14 cents to15 cents a share, lower than expectation.

    Autodesk, the biggest maker of engineering-design software, tumbled after projecting fourth-quarter profit of 24 cents a share at most.

    The U.S. Commerce Department said on Wednesday that housing starts dropped 10.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 529,000 units, the lowest level since April, and the percentage drop was the biggest since January.

    The Labor Department said consumer prices rose 0.3 percent in October, a bit more than the 0.2-percent rise economists had expected. Core inflation, which excludes energy and food, rose 0.2percent, compared with expectations for a 0.1-percent rise.

    Shares of Bank of America rose over 3 percent and limited the decline of major indexes, as billionaire John Paulson's hedge fund said the shares may almost double.

    The Dow Jones fell 11.11, or 0.11 percent, to 10,426.31. Broader indexes also went lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dipped 0.52, or 0.05 percent, to 1,109.80 and the Nasdaq fell 10.64, or 0.48 percent, to 2,193.14.