Wall Street joins global stock losses

NEW YORK: US stocks closed lower but off earlier steep losses Monday as Wall Street focused on European political and economic uncertainty and some US earnings results missed expectations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 102.09 points (0.78 per cent) to finish the trading session at 12,927.17.

The broad S&P 500-stock index dropped 11.59 (0.84 per cent) to 1,366.94, while the tech-rich Nasdaq slid 30.00 (1.00 per cent) to 2,970.45.

"Economic concerns from around the globe have stoked a bearish mood on Wall Street," said Karee Venema at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Wall Street joined global stock losses as a slew of disappointing economic and corporate reports weighed on sentiment.

"While the domestic economic calendar was void of any scheduled releases, eurozone business activity unexpectedly decelerated, while a preliminary report showed Chinese manufacturing output continued to slow," Charles Schwab & Co. analysts said.

"Moreover, political uncertainty in France and the Netherlands added to the anxiety on the Street."

Chinese manufacturing activity contracted for the sixth straight month, and in the 17-nation eurozone, private-sector activity shrank the most in five months.

The Dutch government collapsed Monday, a day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy lost a first-round presidential vote to Socialist Francois Hollande.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his cabinet resigned after his government failed to reach agreement over austerity measures.

Wal-Mart led the blue-chip Dow lower, plunging 4.7 per cent after saying over the weekend it is probing bribe allegations against its Mexican operations.

On Monday, two senior US congressmen launched an investigation into the allegations.

On the earnings front, ConocoPhillips posted a 2.0 per cent profit drop for the first quarter, missing expectations. Shares fell 0.8 per cent.

Breakfast cereal maker Kellogg plunged 6.1 per cent after reporting weaker-than-expected first-quarter sales, hurt by Europe, and lowering its full-year forecast

Pfizer slid 0.8 per cent after announcing the sale of its infant food business Pfizer Nutrition to Swiss food giant Nestle for $11.85 billion in cash.

Microsoft fell 0.9 per cent after agreeing a US$550 million deal to sell hundreds of AOL patents to social network giant Facebook.

After the closing bell, Facebook reported quarterly profit slipped to US$205 million despite a surge in revenue as it bumped up research and promotion expenses ahead of its stock market debut.

The Wall Street sell-off came after a mixed close Friday. The Dow climbed 0.5 per cent, the S&P 500 added 0.1 per cent and the Nasdaq lost 0.2 per cent. - AFP