US stocks’ fall continues as energy producers sink with crude

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks on Thursday fell a third day, giving the Standard &Poor’s 500 Index its longest slump since June, as energy producers sank with oil prices to overshadow new stimulus from the European Central Bank.

Energy shares sank 1.3 percent for the biggest drop among the 10 main S&P 500 groups, as crude fell 1.1 percent in New York. Chevron and Exxon Mobil each lost 0.8 percent to pace declines in the Dow Jones industrial average. PVH surged 9.6 percent after the owner of the Calvin Klein clothing brand posted profit that topped estimates. Fastenal Co. rose 4 percent after reporting a sales increase.

The S&P 500 dropped 0.2 percent to 1,997.65. The Dow lost 8.7 points to 17,069.58. Both gauges earlier climbed to intraday records. More than 5.6 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges Thursday, 1.8 percent above the three-month average.

“The market is kind of tired,” Walter Todd, who oversees about $1 billion as chief investment officer for Greenwood, South Carolina-based Greenwood Capital Associates, said in a phone interview. “We saw such a quick bounce off the 1,900 level in early August straight up to a new high. In the very near term, you’ve got a variety of headwinds and exhaustion around the move higher.”

The S&P 500 has fallen 0.3 percent in the past three days after ending last month at a record. The index gained 3.8 percent in August, the biggest increase since February, and topped 2,000 for the first time.

The ECB cut interest rates and will start buying assets, boosting the flow of funding for the euro-area economy while stopping short of broad-based quantitative easing. The move boosted European stocks and sent two-year note yields below zero in eight countries.

The U.S. equity gauge slipped Wednesday as Apple dropped after a competitor unveiled new products and amid conflicting reports about progress on a peace plan for Ukraine.

The country’s eastern provinces teetered between war and peace as President Petro Poroshenko moved to halt the combat and pro-Russian rebels sought to consolidate gains made in more than five months of fighting.