By Anora Mahmudova and Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock investors turned skittish,
sending prices lower on Monday as they fretted about falling
commodity prices and concerns about global growth.
Treasurys rose as investors sought safety, while prices of
metals dropped sharply.
A decline in economic activity in August, measured by Chicago
Federal Reserve as well as a decine in existing-home sales
contributed to the dour Wall Street mood.
The S&P 500 (SPX) was off 7 points, or 0.3%, at 2,003.43.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) slipped 27 points, or 0.2%,
to 17,253.02. The Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) fell 25 points, or 0.6%,
to 4,566.04.
Data released on Monday, shows U.S. economic activity was
lackluster in August. Sales of existing homes unexpectedly declined
in August, for the first time in five months, the National
Association of Realtors reported Monday. NAR attributed the drop to
fewer all-cash sales to investors.
Meanwhile, markets will be poring over comments from a pair of
Federal Reserve officials: New York Fed President William Dudley
and Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota, Dudley, a
voting member of the Fed policy committee is set to speak at
Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit at 10 a.m. Eastern, while
another voting member Kocherlakota will give a speech on the
objectives of monetary policy to the Economic Club of Marquette
County at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.
Clues about the Fed's timing intention on hiking rates and news
from China are what traders will be looking out for, said Joao
Monteiro, analyst at Valutrades.
China worries festering: Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell to
two-month lows on Monday as traders worried ahead of the HSBC
estimate for China's September purchasing managers index, due after
the close of U.S. markets.
Any number under 50 -- indicating contraction -- could mean more
losses for Asia markets, barring meaningful stimulus measures. At a
G-20 meeting over the weekend, China's Finance Minister Lou Jiwei
said the country is facing downward pressure, but won't "make major
policy adjustments" due to changes in any individual economic
indicator.
"We're not going to see this wall of money thrown at the Chinese
slowdown," Stuart Beavis, head of institutional equity derivatives
at Vantage Capital Markets in Hong Kong, told Bloomberg News.
Stocks to watch: Alibaba shares fell 2.3% on the second day of
trading. With the e-commerce company's underwriters set to exercise
an option to sell additional shares, the IPO is now officially the
world's largest, Dow Jones Newswires reported Sunday.
Shares in Apple, Inc.(AAPL) rose 0.4%, after the company said
iPhone 6 sales topped 10 million during the first weekend, a new
Apple record.
AutoZone Inc. (AZO) reported fiscal-fourth quarter earnings that
topped estimates, but sales were slightly below forecasts. Shares
were off 2.4%.
Dresser-Rand Group Inc. (DRC) gained 2.7% after German
engineering company Siemens AG announced a deal to buy the U.S.
oil-equipment maker for $7.6 billion.
Shares of Sigma-Aldrich Corp. soared 35% in premarket trade
after Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) said Monday it will pay $140 per
share for the life-science and technology company, a price that
values the company at around $17 billion. (Read more about the
day's notable movers here:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/alibaba-autozone-in-spotlight-2014-09-21.)
Other markets: Silver (SIZ4) prices fell to four-year lows on
Monday on dollar strength. Gold (GCZ4) prices edged lower as well,
falling $2.8 to $1,213.8 an ounce. The dollar strengthened in early
New York trade.
In London, shares of U.K. grocer Tesco PLC fell more than 8%
after a profit the company announced that it launched an internal
probe of its accounting practices, suspended top executives and was
forced to restate its first-half 2014 results.
China worries also took a toll on mining shares, cutting into
the FTSE 100 index , with other European indexes slumping.
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