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Date Posted: 00:47:21 05/21/13 Tue
Author: re threat scitzophrina Concerned John Tuesday 14/5/2013
Subject: Health care stocks Monday 21/5/2013 start new week 21 fin 47==68

U.S. Stocks Have a Rare Day of Declines
21/05/2013 6:25AM

--Stocks close lower monday

--Consumer staples, health-care shares among lagging sectors in S&P 500

--S&P 500's decline is just its fourth this month


By Alexandra Scaggs

NEW YORK--Stocks took a breather from their recent rally Monday, as declines in some of the year's best-performing sectors weighed on benchmarks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 19.12 points, or 0.1%, to 15335.28, in late Monday afternoon trading.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index shed 1.18 points, or 0.1%, to 1666.29. Monday was just the fourth session in May it has notched a decline. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 2.5 points, or 0.1%, to 3496.43.

Shares have been on a tear in recent weeks. The Dow industrials jumped 1.6% last week, while the S&P 500 rallied 2.1% and the Nasdaq gained 1.8%. The rallies came alongside corporate earnings reports that were slightly better than expected, although sales that missed Wall Street forecasts.

Rising stocks paired with so-so earnings growth have led to an expansion in the price/earnings ratio on the S&P 500, known as the multiple.

"As concern about risks continues to fade, and confidence in the recovery grows, you're getting exactly the type of multiple expansion that hasn't been seen over the past few years," said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at brokerage firm BTIG LLC.

The S&P 500's consumer-staples sector notched the biggest losses in the index Monday, declining 1%. Also among the laggards was the health-care sector, the biggest gainer in the S&P 500 in 2013. Health-care shares declined 0.6%, but have still risen 22% this year. Consumer staples have also outperformed the S&P 500's 17% year-to-date gain, rising 19%. Those declines outweighed a 1.3% rise from energy shares. The energy sector has underperformed the index this year, adding 14%.

"When you've had the strong bull market that we've had, everybody's looking for the opportunities," said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Asset Management Group, which manages $117 billion in assets. "Energy in general has been a laggard."

Mr. Stone said he is neutral on U.S. stocks given the year's strong rally, but within the firm's stock holdings, he prefers dividend-paying shares.

"It's been a phenomenally good place to be," he said. "People can't get any income in fixed income" as interest rates remain low, he added.

Investors are looking ahead to Wednesday, when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will testify to Congress and the Fed will release the minutes of its most recent policy-setting meeting.

European markets turned higher in late trading. The Stoxx Europe 600 gained 0.3% to close at a high for the year. France's CAC-40, Germany's DAX and London's FTSE 100 also closed at highs for the year.

Crude oil gained 0.7%, to settle at $96.71 a barrel. Gold gained 1.4%, to settle at $1,384.30 a troy ounce. Silver rose 1%, to $22.5680 a troy ounce, after the precious metal plunged 9% in the first 10 minutes of Asian trading.

The dollar fell back below Y103 and lost some ground against the euro. Demand fell for the 10-year Treasury note, pushing the yield up to settle at 1.965%.

Most Asian markets traded higher. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average climbed 1.5% after the Japanese government raised its assessment of the country's economy. That offset some strengthening in the yen following comments over the weekend by Japanese Economy Minister Akira Amari that further weakness in the currency could be harmful.

In corporate news, Yahoo crept up 0.2% after the company's board approved a $1.1 billion deal to buy blogging site Tumblr.

Chesapeake Energy gained 2.6% after the oil-and-gas company named Robert Lawler, previously an executive with rival Anadarko Petroleum, its new chief executive. Mr. Lawler succeeds co-founder Aubrey McClendon, who left amid pressure from board members recently installed by Chesapeake's largest shareholders, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Warner Chilcott climbed 2%. The Dublin-based maker of prescription dermatology products for women agreed to be acquired by Actavis in a stock deal that values Warner Chilcott at roughly $5 billion. Actavis gained as well, rising 1.3%.



-Write to Alexandra Scaggs at alexandra.scaggs@dowjones.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 20, 2013 16:25 ET (20:25 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2013 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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