U.S. stocks head lower on renewed concerns about global growth

Associated Press

Published Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015 | 7:22 a.m.

Updated Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015 | 9:40 a.m.

NEW YORK — The U.S. stock market swung lower on Tuesday as falling commodity prices pulled raw-material producers and oil companies down. Drugmakers also dropped, adding to their losses from Monday.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index sank 28 points, or 1.4 percent, to 1,939 as of 12:20 p.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 221 points, or 1.3 percent, to 16,290, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 87 points, or 1.8 percent, to 4,743.

SELL FIRST: JJ Kinahan, TD Ameritrade's chief strategist, said lingering uncertainty over China's slowdown and the timing of the Federal Reserve's first interest-rate hike in nearly a decade has made investors skittish.

"I think it's really just the fact that nobody knows what to do," Kinahan said. "When things are this uncertain, the reaction is sell first and see what happens later."

CURBS TO COME? Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic presidential candidate, criticized drug companies for "price gouging" on Monday following news that Turing Pharmaceuticals hiked the price of a 53-year-old drug for a deadly parasitic infection from $13.50 per pill to $750. On Tuesday, Clinton laid out a plan to rein in soaring costs and deny drugmakers tax breaks for television advertising.

Mylan and Celgene were among the hardest hit stocks. Mylan sank $2.06, or 4 percent, to $46.11 and Celgene gave up $2.97, or 3 percent, to $116.11.

SCALING BACK: Late Monday, Mosaic said it would cut production of its fertilizers as falling prices for crops have hurt the company's sales. Mosaic pointed to swings in currencies and financial markets as other culprits. Its stock lost $2.47, or 7 percent, to $33.97.

CANNED FOOD: ConAgra Foods tumbled 6 percent after posting a $1.2 billion quarterly loss. Sales for the maker of Chef Boyardee, Hebrew National hot dogs and other packaged food also fell short of analysts' forecasts. ConAgra's stock sank $2.06 to $40.34.

CRUDE: Benchmark U.S. crude oil lost $1.02 to $45.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent Crude, an international benchmark, fell 62 cents to $49.07 a barrel in London.

EUROPE: Major markets slumped across the region. Germany's DAX dropped 3.8 percent, and France's CAC-40 dropped 3.4 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 index sank 2.8 percent.

RIGGED: Volkswagen AG, the world's top-selling carmaker, issued a profit warning after reporting that some 11 million of its diesel vehicles worldwide were fitted with software to cheat U.S. emissions test. The company said it was setting aside around 6.5 billion euros ($7.3 billion) to cover the fallout from the scandal.

Volkswagen's U.S.-listed shares plunged $5.31, or 18 percent, to $24.78, extending its losses to 32 percent over two days.

CHINA: Investors are also fretting about China ahead of monthly manufacturing data out Wednesday. Caixin's preliminary index, based on a survey of factory purchasing managers, will be closely watched after sinking to a six-year low in August. Fed officials cited China's struggling economy as one factor in its decision last week to delay raising interest rates.

ASIA'S DAY: Major indexes throughout Asia ended higher, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 0.2 percent and mainland China's Shanghai Composite Index up 0.9 percent. South Korea's Kospi added 0.9 percent, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.7 percent. Markets in Japan remain closed for a three-day holiday.

BONDS & CURRENCIES: U.S. government bond prices jumped, pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury note down to 2.13 percent, down from 2.20 percent late Monday. The euro slipped to 0.3 percent to $1.1147 while the dollar fell 0.4 percent to 120.04 yen.