Stock Close Lower, Unable To Shake June Retail Figures

Stocks slumped for a seventh day in eight sessions after disappointing retail sales data for June, coupled with the International Monetary Fund further paring its global growth forecast, weighed on trader sentiment. Late gains for energy stocks helped limit today's losses but most other sectors ground lower throughout the day, with healthcare companies - aided by several acquisition offers - the only other sector to finish in the black. Commodities were mixed, with an afternoon rally lifting crude oil to a 1.5% advance while natural gas and metals fell.

An extended slump in retail sales last month helped establish today's downward bias, with June sales slipping 0.5% month over month, well under the 0.2% gain analysts were forecasting. Excluding auto sales, the loss was 0.4% month over month. The International Monetary Fund also today said it expects the world's economy to grow by 3.5% this year, a 0.1% decrease from its prior forecast in April.

Here's where the markets stood at end-of-day:

Dow Jones Industrial Average down 49.88 (-0.39%) to 12,727.21

S&P 500 down 3.14 (-0.23%) to 1,353.64

Nasdaq Composite Index 11.53 (-0.40%) to 2,896.94

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

Hang Seng Index up 0.15%

Shanghai China Composite Index down 1.74%

FTSE 100 Index down 0.07%

UPSIDE MOVERS

(+) ANTH, Phase IIb trial indicates sustained positive response to Blisibimod drug candidate in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus compared with placebo.

(+) PRX, Agrees to $50-a-share acquisition by private equity firm TPG Capital.

(+) GCI, Reports Q2 EPs of $0.56, better than the analyst consensus of $0.53 per share. Revenue in-line with expectations.

(+) JCOM, Expects Q2 EPS of $0.68 to $0.71, versus expectations of $0.63 a share. Sees $88.8 million to $89.5 million in revenue, beating analyst consensus of $87.7 million.

(+) TNS, Selected by Kansas-based United Wireless to expand its roaming capabilities.

DOWNSIDE MOVERS

(-) LEAP, Chief Operating Officer to leave company on July 31.

(-) NSPH, Expects $1.3 million in Q2 revenues, below the analyst consensus of $1.48 million but above $500,000 reported in year-ago period.

(-) ARAY, Acquiring privately held Morphormics, which has developed autosgmentation of medical images technology, for $5.7 million.

(-) SUSS, Projects Q2 gross profit of between $177 million to $182 million, up from $158.9 million a year ago. Total sales seen growing 11.8% to $253 million.

In busy day for mergers and acquisitions, especially in the healthcare sector, Par Pharmaceutics (PRX) finished with a 37% gain at $49.99 a share after agreeing to a $50-a-share buyout from TPG Capital. Human Genome Sciences Inc. (HGSI) rose about 4.5% after receiving sweetened, $14.25 a share buyout offer from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

Also, Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) gave in to late profit-taking, giving back earlier gains after announcing a deal for One Lambda, a transplant diagnostics firm, for $925 million in cash. TMO said it expected the transaction to add $0.09 to $0.11 to its adjusted 2013 EPS.