Wall St. falls in broad decline

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were down on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 on track for its third straight daily decline as investors digested signs of slowing global growth.

The day's losses were broad, with all ten primary S&P 500 sectors fell on the day, with consumer staples the weakest on the day, off 0.9 percent.

Wall Street's losses tracked Europe, which was down after data showed a contraction in French business activity and slower growth in German manufacturing this month.

The European data "is a little concerning," said David Lebovitz, global market strategist for J.P. Morgan Funds in New York. "We didn't expect things to improve there forever and always, but we are seeing a bit of a slowdown, which is weighing a bit."

The Dow Jones industrial average was falling 104.74 points, or 0.61 percent, to 17,067.94, the S&P 500 was losing 9.82 points, or 0.49 percent, to 1,984.47 and the Nasdaq Composite was dropping 16.57 points, or 0.37 percent, to 4,511.12.

The largest percentage gainer on the New York Stock Exchange was Millennial Media , rising 21.94 percent, while the largest percentage decliner was Cheetah Mobile , down 12.01 percent.

Declining issues were outnumbering advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,191 to 837, for a 2.62-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,859 issues were falling and 810 advancing for a 2.30-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 3 new 52-week highs and 13 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 18 new highs and 126 new lows.

(Editing by Nick Zieminski)