By Noel Randewich
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The S&P 500 is not yet in a bear market, but nearly half of its components are.
Hurt by worries about global growth, the S&P 500 (SPX) on Monday fell as much as 1.89 percent before reversing course and ending the session with a 0.17 percent gain, trimming its loss so far in December to 4.44 percent.
The S&P 500 index has been in a correction since October, defined by many investors as a drop of 10 percent or more from a high. It has not crossed the 20 percent threshold, widely viewed as the definition of a bear market.
However, 237 stocks in the S&P 500 - 47 percent of its components - on Monday were down 20 percent or more from their 52-week highs. Another 128 S&P 500 stocks had fallen 10 percent or more from their 52-week highs, but less than 20 percent.
(Graphic: Half of S&P 500 stocks in bear market - https://tmsnrt.rs/2zOJImb)
The index on Monday remained down 10 percent from its Sept. 20 record high close.
Apple Inc (O:AAPL), until recently Wall Street's most valuable company and the largest component of the S&P 500, has declined 27 percent from its record high on Oct. 3, accelerating the index's losses as investors fret over cooling demand for iPhones.
Pessimism has spread beyond the S&P 500 to smaller companies across the U.S. stock market, with hundreds of stocks hitting lows for the year on a daily basis in recent sessions.
(Graphic: Stocks hitting 52-week lows - https://tmsnrt.rs/2SBWw6w)
S&P 500 components deepest in bear market territory include Nektar Therapeutics (O:NKTR), Coty Inc (N:COTY) and General Electric Co (N:GE), each down more than 60 percent from their 52-week highs.
Microsoft Corp (O:MSFT), which in late November dethroned Apple as Wall Street's largest company in terms of stock market value, is down 7 percent from its Oct. 3 record high.
(Graphic: Bottom 10 S&P 500 stocks relative to 52-week highs - https://tmsnrt.rs/2SK1ZZh)