GE, energy shares drag Wall St lower

US stock indexes fell on Tuesday as General Electric shares plunged for a second straight day and a drop in crude oil prices hit energy stocks.

GE fell 5.9 per cent to $17.90 in the largest daily volume in two years as investors wondered if a massive overhaul of the company by new chief executive John Flannery will be enough to revive the industrial conglomerate.

The stock touched $17.46, its lowest in nearly six years.

Energy was the largest decliner among the 11 S&P 500 sectors as oil prices fell the most in a month.

The International Energy Agency forecast rising US crude output and had a gloomy outlook for global demand growth.

Exxon fell 0.8 per cent and ConocoPhillips was down 2.5 per cent, while the S&P 500 energy sector fell 1.5 per cent, the most in more than four months.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 30.23 points, or 0.13 per cent, to end at 23,409.47, the S&P 500 lost 5.97 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 2,578.87 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 19.72 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 6,737.87.

Stocks favored by investors seeking yield, the so-called bond proxies, were the best performers as the yield curve, or the gap between short- and long-term U.S. government bond yields, remained near its flattest in a decade.

Utilities and consumer staples, sectors that pay relatively high dividends, were the best performers on the day.

Utilities rose 1.2 per cent for a 2.4 per cent gain since Friday's close, the largest two-day percentage gain since late February.

"People are looking for yield across the globe so potentially there's foreign flows going into bond proxies," said Paul Zemsky, chief investment officer, Multi-Asset Strategies and Solutions at Voya Investment Management in New York.