NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks declined more than 2% on Monday, retreating from last week's rise after Germany played down the idea of a quick fix for Europe and an index of regional manufacturing fell short. "Part of this rally over the last two weeks was fueled by the expectation of a newfound sense of urgency among policy-makers in the euro zone, so this morning's comments to some degree countered that growing belief that things were going to get better," said Phil Orlando, equity market strategist at Federated Investors.
"The bigger picture is we just had a terrific rally, with the S&P 500 Index up about 14% in the last two weeks, so investors decided to take a deep breath and lock some profits in," he added.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 230.54 points, or 2%, at 11,413.95, with all of its 30 components falling.
The S&P 500 fell 22.18 points, or 1.8%, to 1,202.40, with natural-resource and financial firms hit the hardest among its 10 industry groups.
The Nasdaq Composite Index was off 52.82 points, or 2%, at 2,615.03.
For every stock rising, four fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where 468 million shares traded by 2:30 p.m. Eastern. watermelon is out of the season ??????????????? |
