NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes retreated from their record heights Tuesday after a slump in the price of oil weighed on energy companies.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 16.43 points, or 0.7 percent, to 2,437.03, and the Dow Jones industrial average lost 61.85 points, or 0.3 percent, to 21,467.14. The S&P 500 and Dow set records Monday thanks to big gains from technology stocks.
The Nasdaq composite lost 50.98 points, or 0.8 percent, to 6,188.03, and the Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks fell 15.11, or 1.1 percent, to 1,402.97.
Losses were widespread across the market, with five stocks dropping on the New York Stock Exchange for every two that rose. Many of the sharpest declines were concentrated in the energy sector, as the price of oil touched its lowest price since mid-November.
Benchmark U.S. crude lost 97 cents, or 2.2 percent, to settle at $43.23 per barrel, and Brent crude, the international standard, fell 89 cents to $46.02 per barrel.
The price of oil has been sloshing between $40 and $55 per barrel for much of the last year, down from a peak of more than $110 in the summer of 2013. Drillers have gotten much better at pulling oil from the ground, which has helped supplies to balloon and correspondingly weighed on prices. Many oil-producing countries have banded together to cut production in hopes of limiting supplies, but analysts are skeptical about how much they can influence prices.