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Oil leak again greases stock fall

U.S. stocks fell Monday as the price of oil slumped again, giving up some of the ground it gained late last week. That forced energy companies lower.

U.S. stocks fell Monday as the price of oil slumped again, giving up some of the ground it gained late last week. That forced energy companies lower.

The stock market opened lower and stayed in the red all day. The selling accelerated in the last hour of trading. The biggest losses came in the energy sector and companies that make chemicals and paper goods.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 208.29 points, or 1.3 percent, to 15,885.22. The Standard & Poor's 500 index shed 29.82 points, or 1.6 percent, to 1,877.08. The Nasdaq composite index lost 72.69 points, or 1.6 percent, to 4,518.49.

Plunging oil prices have been hurting profits at energy companies and getting investors worried that the global economy is slowing down. Companies that mine metals, especially copper, face the same problem. Low oil prices are also hurting banking stocks because some banks hold large amounts of loans from energy companies, and investors fear they may not get paid back.

The price of benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.85, or 5.7 percent, to $30.34 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, lost $1.68, or 5.2 percent, to $30.50 a barrel in London. U.S. oil jumped 9 percent Friday after setting 12-year lows earlier in the week.

Exxon Mobil lost $2.59, or 3.4 percent, to $73.98 and Chevron fell $2.65, or 3.2 percent, to $80.89. Chesapeake Energy lost 56 cents, or 16 percent, to $2.95.

Paper and packaging companies fell on concerns about product prices falling. WestRock gave up $5.63, or 14.9 percent, to $32.11 and International Paper declined $3.87, or 10.6 percent, to $32.58.

Mark Wilde, managing director BMO Capital Markets, said stocks in that sector are falling because an influential trade publication estimated that prices for containerboard, an important product, fell sharply in January.

The economic outlook didn't get any brighter Monday. Business economists became more pessimistic about profits and sales than they were last fall and expect slower economic growth, according to a survey by the National Association for Business Economics. However, most of the survey participants said their companies plan to raise wages in the first quarter. That's the largest proportion in more than a year.

Heavy machinery maker Caterpillar sank after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to "Sell." Analyst Jerry Revich said companies around the world are spending less money on machinery because commodity prices have dropped. Caterpillar lost $3.07, or 5 percent, to $57.91.

McDonald's rose after the restaurant chain said its U.S. sales grew 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter, its best result in more than three years.

Twitter continued to slide after the company said four executives, including its head of engineering, will leave the company. The stock lost 82 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $17.02. Twitter is down 57 percent in the last year.