US stocks closed lower Monday as energy companies dropped with the price of oil, metals and chemicals companies also fell, and company earnings remain weak.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.15% declined 26.51 points, or 0.2%, to 17,977.24, as Caterpillar Inc. CAT, -1.95% and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS, -1.00% led blue chips lower. Earlier, the average was down by as many as 148 points.

    Meanwhile, the S&P 500 SPX, -0.18% was down 3.79 points, or 0.2%, to 2,087.79, led by declines in energy and industrial-sector shares. Earlier, the index was off by 14 points.

    The Nasdaq Composite COMP, -0.21% lost 10.44 points, or 0.2%, to 4,895.79, nearly halving an earlier 28-point intraday drop. Stocks in Asia and Europe also closed lower Monday. 

    The dollar dropped against most other major currencies, sending the ICE dollar index DXY, -0.01% down 0.3% to 94.8320. Benchmark US crude fell $1.09, or 2.5 percent, to $42.64 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, lost 63 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $44.48 a barrel in London.