Bloomberg U.S. Stocks Drop as Stronger Dollar Weighs on Commodity Producers' Shares

U.S. stocks fell, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index retreating from the highest level since September 2008, as a stronger dollar weighed on prices of commodities and shares of the companies that produce them.

Stocks pared losses as minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting said the economic recovery wasn’t strong enough to scale back a second round of quantitative easing. Newmont Mining Corp., the largest U.S. gold producer, declined 3.3 percent as the metal fell the most in six months. Freeport- McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the world’s largest publicly traded copper producer, lost 0.7 percent as materials producers in the S&P 500 declined 0.5 percent.

The S&P 500 slid 0.1 percent to 1,270.20 at 4 p.m. in New York after losing as much as 0.7 percent. It gained 1.1 percent yesterday for its biggest advance in a month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 20.43 points, or 0.2 percent, to 11,691.18 today.

“The market is in a very reactive mode, trading off data points, and that kind of news dependency speaks to a lack of commitment by investors to stay invested,” said Liam Dalton, president of Axiom Capital Management Inc. in New York, which oversees $1.4 billion. “I would be suspicious of any strength early this year because we have conflicting signals and the overall economy may be improving, but it is still not so strong that it can support a major bull market.”     more ...