Stocks skid as GE tumbles and technology companies fall

Industrial and technology companies and retailers all stumbled Monday as U.S. stocks began the week with losses. General Electric suffered its worst one-day loss in six years following downgrades from analysts.

GE’s struggles weighed on industrial companies, while big technology companies liked Facebook and Google parent Alphabet sank. Toy companies Hasbro and Mattel tumbled after Hasbro’s sales forecast disappointed Wall Street and familiar consumer companies like Amazon and McDonald’s also slumped.

A seven-day winning streak ended with the worst day for stocks in about seven weeks. But it was still a fairly small decline, as almost nothing has seriously rattled investors this year.

“We have never seen the level of calm and the level of strength combined that we’ve seen,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide Investment Management.

Hackett said it’s very unusual that stocks have continued to rise without any big sell-offs, but he doesn’t see it as a problem. That’s because major economies like the U.S., Europe and China have all been growing for more than a year, which isn’t likely to end soon.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 10.23 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,564.98. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 54.67 points, or 0.2 percent, to 23,273.96. The Nasdaq composite dropped 42.23 points, or 0.6 percent, to 6,586.83.