Wall St. dips as lower oil price knocks energy stocks

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Energy shares dragged Wall Street slightly lower on Monday as crude prices fell further, while U.S. and German data weighed.

Brent crude oil fell below $85 a barrel and U.S. crude dipped below $80 after Goldman Sachs slashed its price forecasts, citing abundant supply and lackluster demand. The S&P 500 energy sector <.SPNY> was down 2.6 percent, the largest decline among the top ten industry groups.

The fall in crude "is probably good for consumers but there are a number of energy stocks on the S&P 500 getting hit on concern about their earnings," said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Bolton Global Asset Management in Boston.

He said, however, the decline is "net positive" as it frees cash from consumers.

At 11:39 a.m. the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 14.38 points, or 0.09 percent, to 16,791.03, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 5.71 points, or 0.29 percent, to 1,958.87 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 8.63 points, or 0.19 percent, to 4,475.09.

The largest percentage gainer on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 was Micron , which rose 3.4 percent after it announced a $1 billion stock buyback authorization.

The largest decliner on the S&P 500 was Newfield Exploration , down 6.4 percent, and on the Nasdaq 100 it was Liberty Interactive Corp , down 2.2 percent.

Shares of Brazilian companies traded in the United States tumbled after incumbent Dilma Rousseff won reelection in a runoff vote, defeating centrist and market favorite Aecio Neves by a slim margin. Petrobras ADRs slumped 14.8 percent to $11.01 and Vale lost 6.4 percent to $10.45. Itau Unibanco fell 6.1 percent and Banco Bradesco lost 7.1 percent.

A Brazilian exchange-traded fund dropped 6.5 percent to $38.87.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,919 to 977, for a 1.96-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,599 issues fell and 922 advanced for a 1.73-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 50 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 33 new highs and 47 new lows.

German business sentiment fell in October for a sixth straight month to its lowest level in almost two years, adding to recent concerns the largest European economy may continue to struggle to grow.

U.S. services sector activity dipped to a six-month low in October and a separate report showed contracts to buy previously owned homes rebounded less than expected in September.

Sarepta Therapeutics shares fell 30 percent to $16.48 after it said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requested additional data regarding a marketing application for its experimental muscle disorder drug.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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