“U.S. stocks declined on Monday after the World Bank cut growth forecasts for East Asia, highlighting concerns about the global economic climate and corporate profits on the cusp of the quarterly earnings season,” Chuck Mikolajczak reports for Reuters. “The World Bank reduced its growth forecasts for the East Asia and Pacific region and said there was a risk the slowdown in China could worsen and last longer than many analysts have forecast.”

Mikolajczak reports, “According to Thomson Reuters data through Friday, 91 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 have issued negative outlooks versus 21 positive preannouncements, for a ratio of 4.3, the weakest showing since the third quarter of 2001.”

“Apple Inc shares shed 1 percent to $646.19 and was the biggest drag on both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes after China Labor Watch, a rights advocate group, said that a Foxconn plant in China that makes Apple’s iPhone was crippled by a strike,” Mikolajczak reports. “Foxconn, a Taiwanese company, denied the report.”

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