Aug. 27, 2013 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell Tuesday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropping the most since June 20, as growing tension over possible military action in Syria overshadowed a report showing consumer confidence unexpectedly rose in August.
Financial and technology shares lost at least 2 percent to lead declines among 10 S&P 500 main industries. American Express Co. and Microsoft Corp. sank more than 2.3 percent. Southwest Airlines Co. tumbled 3.5 percent amid concern surging oil prices will boost fuel costs. D.R. Horton Inc. fell 3.8 percent as a report showed residential real-estate prices increased in June at a slower pace.
The S&P 500 slid 1.6 percent to 1,630.48 at 4 p.m. in New York, the lowest closing level since July 3 and 4.6 percent below the latest record on Aug. 2. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 170.33 points, or 1.1 percent, to 14,776.13, The gauge has fallen eight of the past 10 sessions to the lowest since June 25.
“Everybody’s waiting to see what’s going to happen,” Randy Bateman, who oversees $15 billion as chief investment officer of Huntington Asset Advisors in Columbus, said by phone. “Is this going to escalate? Energy prices, if they rise a whole lot, could that mitigate all the strength we’ve been seeing lately in the economy? If we’ve got housing prices that start to rise at the same time we have food and fuel increasing, we could see inflation start to rise and that could impact Fed policy.”
READ MORE: Bloomberg