US stocks fell on Monday, as a drop in crude oil prices dragged energy companies' shares lower, while a court decision against Merck & Co hurt the pharmaceutical sector.
Oil prices fell almost 2 percent as dealers took profits after last week's surge to a record high $75.35 a barrel and Iran reiterated that it would not use oil as leverage in its dispute with the West over uranium enrichment.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 24.25 points, or 0.21 percent, at 11,323.20. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 4.42 points, or 0.34 percent, at 1,306.86. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 9.84 points, or 0.42 percent, at 2,333.02.
"There's a little apprehension here about the price of crude oil and how that's going to affect us. Even though we're off a bit, it's still $74 oil. I think that's a negative factor in the market though gasoline is really the issue," said Frank Lesh, a futures analyst and broker at FuturePath Trading LLC in Chicago.
US crude for June delivery fell $1.37 to $73.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. A report showed on Sunday that US retail gasoline prices rose about 9 percent over the past two weeks, to $2.91 a gallon, on average. Shares of Exxon Mobil Corp, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, declined 0.7 percent to $64.55. ConocoPhillips fell 2.8 percent to $70.44.
Shares of drug maker Merck, a Dow component, dropped 1.3 percent to $34.29 after a Texas jury on Friday found that the painkiller Vioxx caused the death of a 71-year-old man.
The stock of rival Pfizer Inc declined 0.8 percent to $24.68. It was among the biggest weights on the S&P 500 index. Profits, which have been stronger than expected recently, also concerned Wall Street. Xerox Corp posted a drop in quarterly profit, sending shares down 5.7 percent to $13.96.
Shares of credit card and travel services company American Express Co, which posted a lower quarterly profit on Monday, fell 1 percent to $51.71.
Ford Motor Co stock slid to a three-year low, declining 4.5 percent to $6.98. It was the most heavily traded issue on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of rival General Motors Corp were among the top weights on the Dow industrials, falling 2.1 percent to $21.34.
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