US stocks close lower on falling Oil prices and weak earnings

US stocks closed lower Monday as energy companies dropped with the price of oil, metals and chemicals companies also fell, and company earnings remain weak.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.15% declined 26.51 points, or 0.2%, to 17,977.24, as Caterpillar Inc. CAT, -1.95% and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS, -1.00% led blue chips lower. Earlier, the average was down by as many as 148 points.

    Meanwhile, the S&P 500 SPX, -0.18% was down 3.79 points, or 0.2%, to 2,087.79, led by declines in energy and industrial-sector shares. Earlier, the index was off by 14 points.

    The Nasdaq Composite COMP, -0.21% lost 10.44 points, or 0.2%, to 4,895.79, nearly halving an earlier 28-point intraday drop. Stocks in Asia and Europe also closed lower Monday. 

    The dollar dropped against most other major currencies, sending the ICE dollar index DXY, -0.01% down 0.3% to 94.8320. Benchmark US crude fell $1.09, or 2.5 percent, to $42.64 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, lost 63 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $44.48 a barrel in London.