For stocks, February goes out with a slide
NEW YORK - Late-day selling pushed U.S. stocks to a loss for the day and erased nearly all of the market's gains for the month.
Nine of the 10 market sectors fell Monday -- only utilities managed a slight gain -- as investors lost enthusiasm for stocks after two straight weekly gains. Health care stocks fell furthest as Endo International (ENDO), Mylan (MYL) and Mallinckrodt (MNK) all fell sharply.
Selling during Monday's final two hours pushed the Dow Jones industrial average down 123 points, or 0.74 percent, to close at 16,517. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 16 points, or 0.8 percent, to end at 1,932. The Nasdaq composite fell 32 points, or 0.7 percent, to 4,558.
For the month, the Dow managed a gain of 0.3 percent, while the S&P 500 fell 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq lost 1.2 percent.
Monday marked one of the few days recently when oil climbed, more than 3 percent to $33.86 per barrel, but stocks fell anyway.