Wall Street drops with energy shares; global data disappoints

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Monday, putting the S&P 500 on track for its biggest daily percentage decline since October, as energy shares fell with oil prices and global growth concerns rose following soft data out of China and Japan.

Energy <.SPNY> was easily the worst-performing S&P sector, down 3.8 percent, as Brent crude fell to a five-year low on predictions oversupply would keep building until next year. The index is down more than 10 percent for the year, making it the only one of the 10 major S&P sectors in negative territory for the year. [O/R]

But most growth-oriented sectors were down on Monday as well, suggesting investors were avoiding riskier areas of the market.

Data showed China's exports grew at a slower-than-expected pace and imports dropped 6.7 percent in November, while Japan's economy shrank more than expected in the third quarter.

In response to falling oil prices, ConocoPhillips said its capital budget for 2015 would drop 20 percent to $13.5 billion. Conoco shares lost 3.6 percent.

"I think people are looking at the potential ripple effects from the slide in oil. You're seeing some of these ripple effects today," said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.

Several of the year's biggest gainers also sold off, which may be due to some year-end profit-taking, James said. Among them, Apple was down 2.4 percent, while GoPro shares were down 5.3 percent.

Volume picked up after midday, while the S&P 500 moved more than 21 points from its high for the day to its low, its largest high-to-low swing in more than a month.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 118.34 points, or 0.66 percent, to 17,840.45, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 16.76 points, or 0.81 percent, to 2,058.61 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 47.53 points, or 0.99 percent, to 4,733.22.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,197 to 870, for a 2.53-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,942 issues fell and 772 advanced for a 2.52-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

Concerns over the global economy were offset by signs of strength in the U.S. economy, including Friday's payrolls report. The S&P 500 closed Friday's session with its 49th record of the year, and is up more than 11 percent from an October low.

McDonald's shares lost 3.7 percent after the fast-food restaurant chain reported a steeper-than-expected fall in global same-restaurant sales in November and said fourth-quarter results would be hurt by a supplier scandal in China and a stronger dollar.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum and Meredith Mazzilli)