U.S. Stocks Fall as Retailers Slump Amid Fed Stimulus Concern

Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its biggest decline since June 24, as retailers’ results disappointed and trade data fueled concern the Federal Reserve may reduce its bond purchases this year. American Eagle Outfitters Inc. and CVS Caremark Corp. slumped more than 2.8 percent. Newmont Mining Corp. lost 6.5 percent as gold tumbled. International Business Machines Corp. retreated 2.3 percent after requiring most U.S. employees in its hardware division to take a week off amid slowing demand. Washington Post Co. rallied 4.3 percent as Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos agreed to buy its newspaper assets. The S&P 500 fell 0.6 percent to 1,697.37 at 4 p.m. in New York, extending yesterday’s loss after a record high last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 93.39 points, or 0.6 percent, to 15,518.74. About 5.6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, 12 percent below the three-month average. “Certainly some of the move is due to increased concern about tapering due to the very strong trade number,” Paul Zemsky, the New York-based head of asset allocation for ING Investment Management which oversees $180 billion, said in an e-mail. “It’s puzzling to me why better GDP growth would be bad for the equity market, but there are some who view it this way. Longer term, we need to see revenue growth, and stronger GDP will deliver that.” The U.S. trade deficit narrowed more than forecast in June to the lowest level since October 2009 as crude oil imports declined and American companies shipped more goods abroad, showing second-quarter growth was stronger than initially estimated.