S&P 500 hit with fourth loss in row

Traders Michael Urkonis, left, William Lawrence, center, and Michael Smyth work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Oct. 22, 2018. U.S. stocks veered broadly lower in early trading Monday as losses in health care companies and banks outweighed gains elsewhere. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Traders Michael Urkonis, left, William Lawrence, center, and Michael Smyth work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Oct. 22, 2018. U.S. stocks veered broadly lower in early trading Monday as losses in health care companies and banks outweighed gains elsewhere. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Banks led a broad slide in U.S. stocks Monday as an early rally faded, giving the benchmark S&P 500 index its fourth-straight loss.

Health care and energy stocks also helped pull the market lower, outweighing gains by technology and consumer-focused stocks. Crude-oil prices eked out a small gain after spending most of the day in the red.

The S&P 500 fell 11.90 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,755.88. The index is on course for its worst month in more than three years. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 126.93 points, or 0.5 percent, to 25,317.41. The tech-heavy Nasdaq recovered from an early tumble, gaining 19.60 points, or 0.3 percent, to 7,468.63.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks gave up 2.54 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,539.50. That's the lowest close for the index since April. It's now up just 0.3 percent for the year.

Decliners outnumbered gainers on the New York Stock Exchange.

The latest losses came as traders geared up for a busy week of company earnings reports that should help answer how corporate America is coping with rising interest rates, inflation and the impact of global trade disputes.

Major U.S. stock indexes initially headed higher early Monday, riding a strong wave of buying in Chinese markets as traders brushed off potential concerns about slower growth in the world's second-biggest economy and a downgrade in Italy's credit rating.

That early rally vanished after a few minutes, however, as trading turned volatile. At its extremes, the Dow swung from a gain of more than 100 points to a loss of more than 200.

"In this pullback, the defensive sectors have held in there better than these more cyclical sectors," said Scott Wren, senior global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

Investors have been worried in recent weeks about potential threats to corporate growth, including rising interest rates, trade tensions between the U.S. and China, and some sluggish reports about housing construction and sales.

This week marks the busiest stretch of the quarterly earnings calendar as many big-name companies report their latest results, including Caterpillar, Amazon and Google's parent company, Alphabet.

Nearly 17 percent of companies in the S&P 500 had served up third-quarter results as of Monday. Of those, 54 percent delivered earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street's forecasts, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Financial and industrial companies account for most of the S&P 500 companies that have reported results so far this earnings season.

Investors are most focused on what companies have to say about what impact, if any, the U.S.-China trade dispute, a stronger dollar and rising interest rates, which can drive up the cost of borrowing and carrying debt, are likely to have in 2019.

Banks and other financial companies took the heaviest losses Monday. Synchrony Financial fell 6 percent to $29.47.

Energy stocks also fell as the price of crude oil spent most of the day lower. Newfield Exploration fell 3 percent to $22.91.

Benchmark U.S. crude recovered from an early skid. It gained 0.1 percent to settle at $69.17 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, added 0.1 percent to close at $79.83 per barrel in London.

Wholesale gasoline fell 0.4 percent to $1.91 a gallon. Heating oil rose 0.7 percent to $2.32 a gallon. Natural gas slid 3.4 percent to $3.14 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Business on 10/23/2018

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