NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. stocks fell Monday as the price of oil slumped again, giving up some of the ground it gained late last week. That forced energy companies lower.
The stock market opened lower and stayed in the red all day. The selling accelerated in the last hour of trading. The biggest losses came in the energy sector and companies that make chemicals and paper goods.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 208.29 points, or 1.3 percent, to 15,885.22. The Standard & Poor's 500 index shed 29.82 points, or 1.6 percent, to 1,877.08. The Nasdaq composite index lost 72.69 points, or 1.6 percent, to 4,518.49.
Plunging oil prices have been decimating profits at energy companies and getting investors worried that the global economy is slowing down. Companies that mine metals, especially copper, face the same problem. Low oil prices are also hurting banking stocks because some banks hold large amounts of loans from energy companies, and investors fear they may not get paid back.
The price of benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.85, or 5.7 percent, to $30.34 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, lost $1.68, or 5.2 percent, to $30.50 a barrel in London. U.S. oil jumped 9 percent Friday after setting 12-year lows earlier in the week.
The economic outlook didn't get any brighter Monday. Business economists became more pessimistic about profits and sales than they were last fall and expect slower economic growth, according to a survey by the National Association for Business Economics.