By Ryan Vlastelica
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were lower on Monday, but major indexes were off their lows of the day as investors once again used market weakness as a chance to add to positions.
The losses were modest but broad; all ten primary S&P 500 sectors fell on the day, led by energy shares <.SPNY>, which were down 0.8 percent.
The S&P 500 fell almost 1 percent at its session low before rebounding and retracing about half that decline, though it seemed to find resistance at its 50-day moving average.
The benchmark index is about 1.9 percent below a record close hit earlier this month and hasn't undergone a correction - defined as a 10 percent decline from a peak - since 2012.
"This selloff today is an awesome time to get into the markets," said Todd Schoenberger, president of J. Streicher Asset Management in New York. "This stock market is far too resilient."
Much of the day's weakness came as investors monitored the continued civil unrest in Hong Kong for its potential impact on economic growth in China.
Though the economic fallout from the protests was uncertain, Chinese growth has been a major driver of global share gains in recent years and an extended period of unrest could raise further questions about the economy's prospects after data pointed to slowing conditions.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was falling 89.15 points, or 0.52 percent, to 17,024, the S&P 500 <.SPX> was losing 9 points, or 0.45 percent, to 1,973.85 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was dropping 10.70 points, or 0.24 percent, to 4,501.50.
Declining issues were outnumbering advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,067 to 840, for a 2.46-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,532 issues were falling and 997 advancing for a 1.54-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.
The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 7 new 52-week highs and 10 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 24 new highs and 95 new lows.
(Additional reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
