Wall St. stumbles as discretionary stocks weigh

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 28, 2016. (Image: REUTERS)

Wall Street fell on Tuesday, with each of the major indexes on track for their worst day in over a month, as economic data and weaker than expected auto sales spurred growth concerns.

Shares of Ford (F.N) and General Motors (GM.N) dropped more than 4 percent each after the two major U.S. automakers reported July vehicle sales slightly below expectations.

The declines in the automakers pulled the S&P consumer discretionary sector .SPLRCD down 1.5 percent as the worst performing of the 10 major S&P groups.

Data showed U.S. consumer spending rose more than expected in June as households bought a range of goods and services.

However, personal income rose only 0.2 percent, missing estimates of 0.3 percent, while inflation remained below the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target, which could keep the central bank on a cautious path to hiking interest rates.

"How long can you stay in a slow growth environment?" said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.

"Right now the market wants growth and they want the Fed to raise, they’d love to see the Fed raise, but there has got to be a reason for that raise and right now there isn’t."

Another drop in U.S. crude CLc1 below $40 a barrel also weighed on sentiment, with the commodity last down 1.3 percent at $39.53.

Pfizer (PFE.N), was the biggest percentage decliner on the Dow, after the largest U.S. drugmaker reported better-than-expected quarterly results but revenue from its branded patent-protected medicines brought disappointment. The Dow Jones industrial average.DJI fell 112.48 points, or 0.61 percent, to 18,292.03, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 16.29 points, or 0.75 percent, to 2,154.55 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 52.65 points, or 1.02 percent, to 5,131.55.

CVS (CVS.N) jumped more than 5 percent to $98.57 after the drugstore chain operator's quarterly profit beat estimates.

Of the 353 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings through Tuesday morning, 71 percent have topped analyst expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data. Earnings for the second quarter are expected to show a decline of 2.6 percent, up from the expected 4.5 percent decline on July 1.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 3.79-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.85-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 14 new 52-week highs and 1 new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 47 new highs and 36 new lows.