US STOCKS-Wall St dips in late afternoon as energy, Apple weigh

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, Sept 8 (Reuters) - The Dow and S&P 500 are down in late afternoon trading on Monday, led by declines in energy shares and Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) , while the Nasdaq is up a tad.

Apple shares are down 0.7 percent.

Energy shares are the weakest sector on the day, with the S&P energy index off 1.7 percent. Shares (Frankfurt: DI6.F - news) of Exxon Mobil are down 1.5 percent and Schlumberger's are down 2.2 percent, among the biggest drags on the S&P 500.

Brent crude traded below $100 a barrel for the first time in more than a year as Chinese and U.S. data pointed to slower-than-expected growth in the world's top oil consumers, while U.S. crude settled lower.

Research from the San Francisco Federal Reserve indicated investors expect rates to stay low for longer than the central bank itself does. Recent market momentum has been driven by accommodative Fed policy, including bond purchases and low interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average is falling 38.68 points, or 0.23 percent, to 17,098.68, the S&P 500 is losing 8.63 points, or 0.43 percent, to 1,999.08 and the Nasdaq Composite is dropping 0.92 points, or 0.02 percent, to 4,581.98.

The largest percentage gainer on the New York Stock Exchange is Essent Group (NYSE: ESNT - news) , up 10.59 percent, while the largest percentage decliner is Coupons.com, down 8.08 percent.

Among the most active stocks on the NYSE are Brazil's Petrobras, down 5.31 percent to $18.35, and Ford Motor (NYSE: F - news) Co, down 2.19 percent to $16.77.

Besides Apple, Yahoo (NasdaqGS: YHOO - news) , up 4.3 percent to $41.28, and Microsoft (NasdaqGS: MSFT - news) , up 1.1 percent to $46.43 are among the most actively traded.

Declining issues are outnumbering advancers on the NYSE by 1,996 to 960, for a 2.08-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,391 issues are falling and 1,322 advancing for a 1.05-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The broad S&P 500 index was posting 44 new 52-week highs and three new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 70 new highs and 26 new lows. (Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Nick Zieminski)