NEW YORK — U.S. stocks fell, dragging the Standard & Poor’ 500 Index lower for the seventh time in eight days, after the International Monetary Fund cut its global economic forecast and retail sales unexpectedly dropped. NEW YORK — U.S.
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks fell, dragging the Standard & Poor’ 500 Index lower for the seventh time in eight days, after the International Monetary Fund cut its global economic forecast and retail sales unexpectedly dropped.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. lost 2.7 percent while Home Depot and Caterpillar dropped more than 1 percent to lead the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower. Equities pared losses as energy companies rose with the price of oil while Visa and MasterCard, the world’s biggest payment networks, gained at least 1.7 percent after agreeing to a settlement of at least $6.05 billion in a price-fixing case.
The S&P 500 declined 0.2 percent to 1,353.64 at 4 p.m. New York time after earlier retreating as much as 0.6 percent. The Dow slipped 49.88 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,727.21 Monday.
“The retail sales gives you another indicator that uncertainty has showed up in the consumer side,” James Dunigan, who helps oversee $112 billion as chief investment officer in Philadelphia for PNC Wealth Management, said. “We’re in a bit of the summer doldrums.”
The S&P 500 is down 4.6 percent from a four-year high in April as economic data trails forecasts and investors brace for what is projected to be the first decrease in quarterly earnings since 2009. The Citigroup Economic Surprise Index for the U.S., which measures how much data from the past three months is beating or missing the median estimates in Bloomberg surveys, is at minus 64, near the almost 11-month low of minus 64.9 reached last week.
U.S. retail sales dropped 0.5 percent in June, following a 0.2 percent decrease in May, Commerce Department figures showed Monday. The decline was worse than the most-pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey in which the median projection called for 0.2 percent rise.
The IMF cut its 2013 global growth forecast as Europe’s debt crisis prolongs Spain’s recession and slows expansions in emerging markets. Growth worldwide will be 3.9 percent next year, less than the 4.1 percent estimate in April, the fund predicted in an update of its World Economic Outlook.
Manufacturing in the New York region expanded in July at a faster pace than anticipated, signaling factories will keep contributing to growth. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s general economic index rose to 7.4 from 2.3 in June. The median forecast of 51 economists surveyed called for an increase to 4.0. Readings greater than zero signal expansion in the so-called Empire State Index that covers New York, northern New Jersey and southern Connecticut.
Earnings beat estimates at 21 of the 32 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported quarterly results so far, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Profits probably decreased 2.1 percent in the second quarter, the first drop in almost three years, according to a Bloomberg survey of analysts.
JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank by assets, fell 2.7 percent to $35.09 after rallying 6 percent on July 13 as Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon predicted the company will still post record earnings this year despite a $4.4 billion trading loss in the second quarter.
