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Wall St. Closes Lower, Weighed Down by Banks and Health Care

Stocks on Wall Street slumped on Monday, and banks took the biggest losses. Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank, plunged as investors worried about its financial health. Pfizer pulled drug makers down after it announced it would not break up into two companies.

Stocks fell for a second day in a row. And banks were hurt by a drop in bond yields. Consumer companies’ stock fell as home improvement retailers were affected by a slowdown in sales of new homes.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 166.62 points, or 0.9 percent, to 18,094.83. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 18.59 points, or 0.9 percent, to 2,146.10. The Nasdaq composite dropped 48.26 points, or 0.9 percent, to 5,257.49. Stocks were coming off two weeks of solid gains. The Nasdaq set new highs twice last week.

European banks tumbled after the German magazine Focus said that Deutsche Bank would not get a government bailout if it asked for one and that Germany would not help the bank by intervening with the United States. The Justice Department wants the bank to pay $14 billion to end an investigation into its sale of residential mortgage-backed securities.

Deutsche Bank’s United States-listed shares tumbled 7.1 percent, to $11.85. The stock is down 51 percent this year.

Other bank shares also tumbled. Goldman Sachs took the largest loss among Dow stocks and sank $3.65, or 2.2 percent, to $161.48. Citigroup shed $1.26, or 2.7 percent, to close at $45.89.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.58 percent from 1.62 percent.

Stocks overseas also weakened. The DAX in Germany dropped 2.2 percent. The CAC 40 in France fell 1.8 percent. In Britain, the FTSE 100 was down 1.3 percent. The benchmark Nikkei 225 in Japan edged down 1.3 percent.

Home Depot and Lowe’s sank after the government said sales of new homes fell almost 8 percent in August. Home Depot shed $2.34, or 1.8 percent, to close at $125.45, and Lowe’s fell $1.54, or 2.1 percent, to $70.81.

Pfizer’s stock fell 62 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $33.64.

Oil prices rose as investors monitored a meeting of oil producers in Algeria. Benchmark United States crude rose $1.45, or 3.3 percent, to $45.93 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up $1.46, or 3.2 percent, to $47.35 a barrel in London.

The dollar slid to 100.26 yen from 101.04 yen. The euro rose to $1.1251 from $1.1226.

Gold edged up $2.50, to $1,339.70 an ounce. Silver dipped 21 cents, to $19.60 an ounce. Copper remained at $2.20 a pound.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Another Down Day on Wall Street. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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