Boeing, energy shares take Wall St lower

By Leah Schnurr

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Monday as energy shares slid along with oil prices' sharp drop on worries that demand will fall further, while Boeing's profit warning increased caution before earnings later this week.

Chevron Corp, which also warned that first-quarter earnings would be sharply lower, fell 2.6 percent as the price of oil fell after the International Energy Agency cut its forecast for oil demand. An S&P index of energy companies' shares lost 1.5 percent.

The price of oil has tended to oscillate along with sentiment about the economy, though there appears to be a trend toward the idea that the economy is showing signs of stabilization, said Jim Paulsen, chief investment officer of Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis.

"There's no doubt that those economic views are changing at the margin every day and oil's right in the center of that," Paulsen said.

Boeing Co was the Dow's biggest weight after it said late on Thursday that first-quarter profit would be hurt by lower-than-expected airplane prices and production cuts on its lucrative wide-body planes. Boeing tumbled 6.8 percent to $36.50.

The prospect of bankruptcy for General Motors added to the negative tone after a newspaper reported that the U.S. Treasury Department is directing the struggling automaker to prepare for a bankruptcy filing by June 1 despite the company's contention that it could reorganize outside the court. GM slid 16.2 percent to $1.71.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 73.60 points, or 0.91 percent, to 8,009.78. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was off 4.15 points, or 0.48 percent, at 852.41. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 14.25 points, or 0.86 percent, at 1,638.29.

The S&P 500 closed out a five-week rally on Thursday, which was the last day of trading before the long Easter weekend, and the broad index is up 25.7 percent from the closing low hit in early March. However, the S&P 500 is still down nearly 6 percent for the year.