NEW YORK: US stocks fell Tuesday, after three straight winning sessions, as concerns mounted about economic slowdowns in Europe and the United States.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 67.55 points (0.59 percent) to 11,415.35 at 1445 GMT.
The broad-market S&P 500 fell 9.96 points (0.83 percent) to 1,194.53 and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite slid 24.30 points (0.95 percent) to 2,530.90.
The indices opened lower after closing Monday above the levels they held on August 5 just before Standard & Poor's downgraded the US credit rating, sending global markets into a tailspin.
"Downbeat data from Germany has taken the wind out of the bulls' sails," said Sarah Wasserman at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "This news has simply bolstered fears of a global economic downturn."
Germany, the top eurozone economy, reported growth nearly stalled in the second quarter, at 0.1 percent, following a downwardly revised 1.3 percent in the first quarter.
For the entire 17-nation eurozone, gross domestic product edged up only 0.2 percent in the April-June period, European Union data showed Tuesday, spurring fears of a slide back toward recession as leaders try to contain a public debt crisis.
France, the second-largest economy, had posted zero growth for the quarter last week.
US economic indicators were mixed. Starts on housing construction and building permits continued to languish in July, higher than a year before but still lass than half of the pace of the years before the 2008-09 recession.
Industrial production in July rose 0.9 percent, partly due to energy use amid warmer summer weather and a pick-up in auto production as supply disruptions from the Japan earthquake disaster dissipated.
Wall Street shrugged off a pre-market announcement by rating agency Fitch that confirmed the United States still deserved its top triple-A credit score.
Better-than-expected corporate earnings from two major retailers helped to limit the Dow's downturn.
Shares in Wal-Mart jumped 3.6 percent to $51.78. The world's biggest retailer said profit rose 5.7 percent in its fiscal second quarter, beating market expectations, and raised its full-year forecast.
Do-it-yourself retailer Home Depot, another Dow blue chip, bounced up 5.4 percent to $33.16 after posting a 14.3 percent quarterly profit rise and raising its outlook.
The bond market edged higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.28 percent from 2.29 percent late Monday, while that on the 30-year Treasury slipped to 3.74 percent from 3.75 percent.
Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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