Stocks Fell on Weak Economy, Retail Woes

U.S. stocks fell on Monday, as mounting signs of weakness in the global economy and a poor start to the holiday shopping season triggered a bout of selling in global equity markets. At close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 51.44 points, or 0.29%, to 17,776.80. The S&P 500 fell 14.12 points, or 0.68%, to 2,053.44. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 64.28 points, or 1.34%, to 4,727.35.suffering its steepest drop in seven weeks.

Manufacturing growth in the U.S. barely skipped a beat in November, holding near the strongest pace in three years, as the world’s largest economy rose above a global slowdown.The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index was little changed at 58.7 last month, the second-strongest level since April 2011.

Earlier sales, a shift to online shopping and stagnant wages meant fewer Americans showed up to stores over the Thanksgiving weekend, the National Retail Federation said Sunday. Major retailers slumped in response. Macy’s lost $1.72, or 3 percent, to $63.19 and Target fell $1.25, or 2 percent, to $72.75. Best Buy lost $2.15, or 6 percent, to $37.26.

Amazon.com Inc. does not yet have plans to integrate its delivery drones into its fulfillment centers, but the e-commerce giant has gradually been putting to work another type of robot. The company on Cyber Monday said it has deployed 15,000 Kiva robots in 10 U.S. fulfillment centers in an effort to shuffle around its tens of millions of inventory units and improve operations.

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. and Spansion, Inc.today announced a definitive agreement to merge in an all- stock, tax-free transaction valued at approximately $4 billion. The post-merger company will generate more than $2 billion in revenue annually and create a leading global provider of microcontrollers and specialized memories needed in today’s embedded systems.

Crude oil markets jumped as much as 5 percent on Monday, rebounding from five-year lows with their biggest daily gain since 2012. Benchmark Brent crude oil settled up $2.39 at $72.54 a barrel, after a session peak at $72.73.