NEW YORK, March 5 (UPI) -- Stocks slid Monday after the Commerce Department said factory orders in the United States dropped by 1 percent in January.
The decline in factory orders was not as harsh as economists expected. The consensus prediction had pointed to a decline of 1.5 percent.
The pace of growth in the U.S. service sector gained ground in February, the Institute for Supply Management said. But the non-manufacturing business index rising from 56.1 percent to 57.3 percent did not put the market into a bullish mood.
By close of trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was off 14.76 points, 0.11 percent to 12,962.81. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gave up 5.30 points, 0.39 percent, to 1,364.33. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index shed 25.71 points, 0.86 percent, to 2,950.48.
On the New York Stock Exchange, 1,231 stocks advanced and 1,817 declined on a volume of 3.2 billion shares traded.
The benchmark 10-year treasury note lost 11/32 to yield 2.017 percent.
The euro rose to $1.3215 from Friday's $1.32. Against the yen, the dollar fell to 81.55 yen from 81.81 yen.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index lost 0.8 percent, 78.44 points, to 9,698.59.
In London, the FTSE 100 index lost 0.61 percent, 36.31, to 5,874.82.
