Stock selloff accelerates

Dow leads decliners on Citigroup's weaker profit report; crude prices hit all-time high above $85 a barrel.


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks fell Monday morning after Citigroup's weak profit report pummeled the financial sector and record-high oil prices raised worries about consumer spending.

The Dow Jones industrial average (Charts) lost around 100 points, 0.8 percent, more than 90 minutes into the session. The S&P 500 (Charts) index lost 0.6 percent. Both indexes hit all-time highs late last week.

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The Nasdaq composite (Charts) lost 0.7 percent. The tech-heavy index hit a fresh 6-1/2 year high last week.

U.S. light crude oil for November delivery rose as high as $85.30 a barrel, in record territory, before pulling back a bit. Crude prices ended Friday's session at an all-time high of $83.69 a barrel.

The quarterly reporting period began on a ho-hum note last week, when Alcoa (Charts, Fortune 500) reported earnings that rose from a year ago, but missed forecasts.

However, this week brings the first big batch of reports, including Yahoo (Charts, Fortune 500), Coca-Cola (Charts, Fortune 500), eBay (Charts, Fortune 500), Pfizer (Charts, Fortune 500) and a slew of banks.

Citigroup (Charts, Fortune 500) got the ball rolling Monday. The biggest U.S. bank reported third-quarter profit dropped 57 percent from a year ago due to $3 billion in writedowns related to the mortgage market fallout.

Citigroup also reported weaker earnings per share of 47 cents, that nonetheless topped analysts' estimates. The stock lost 2.3 percent and dragged on the Dow and other bank shares.

Decliners were broad-based, with 22 out of 30 Dow issues falling, including American Express (Charts, Fortune 500), Caterpillar (Charts, Fortune 500) and General Motors (Charts, Fortune 500).

Spiking oil prices boosted the stocks of oil services firms such as Exxon Mobil (Charts, Fortune 500) and Valero Energy (Charts, Fortune 500), but dragged on airline, railroad and trucker stocks, which are directly dependent on fuel. The Dow Jones Transportation (Charts) average lost 1 percent.

Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, decliners beat advancers two to one as 340 million shares changed hands. On the Nasdaq, losers topped winners by a similar margin on volume of 640 million shares.

Technology shares jumped Friday after Oracle (Charts, Fortune 500) made a $6.7 billion bid for software maker BEA Systems, but the broader market was more subdued after the major gauges hit record levels during the week.

The NY Empire State index, a regional manufacturing report, rose to 28.8 in October from 14.7 in the previous month. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought it would fall to 14.

Treasury prices slipped, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.70 percent from 4.68 percent late Friday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the euro and gained versus the yen.

COMEX gold for December delivery rose $9 to $762.80 an ounce. Top of page

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.