(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropping for the first time in seven sessions, as General Electric Co. led industrial shares lower to offset gains among energy producers. General Electric fell 1.1 percent after clinching the $17 billion purchase of Alstom SA’s energy assets, its biggest acquisition ever.
FMC Corp. fell 4.9 percent after cutting its 2014 profit forecast. Integrys Energy Group Inc. jumped 12 percent after Wisconsin Energy Corp. agreed to pay $5.7 billion for the company. Micros Systems rose 3.4 percent as Oracle Corp. offered to buy it for a $68 a share.
The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1 percent to 1,962.50 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 10.27 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,936.81. Both gauges ended last week at all-time highs.
“You’re sitting up at all-time highs and you do have a geopolitical situation remaining out there that’s weighing on the market,” Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Wealth Management, said in a phone interview. He helps oversee $131 billion in assets under management. “We got on balance in the U.S. with some good economic numbers. It continues to tell the story of a snap back in second quarter GDP.”
The equities benchmark rose 1.4 percent last week, the most in two months, closing at an all-time high of 1,962.87. The Dow average also ended the week at a record. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said accommodative monetary policy, rising property and equity prices and the improving global economy should lead to above-trend growth.
Yellen emphasized the need to put more Americans back to work and downplayed concerns about asset-price bubbles and incipient inflation.
Economic Contraction
The S&P 500 is up 8 percent since a low on April 11 as data showed the economy is recovering from extreme weather and the first drop in first-quarter gross domestic product since 2011. The government’s third revision to the GDP reading, due June 25, is expected to show a contraction of 1.8 percent, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists.