By Lynn Thomasson Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks declined and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell for the first time in six days on concern the global economic slump is deepening. General Electric Co. slid 5.8 percent and Caterpillar Inc. lost 6.3 percent before a report from the Institute for Supply Management that may show manufacturing contracted in November at the fastest pace in 26 years. Hess Corp. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. dropped more than 6.8 percent as oil retreated below $52 a barrel. Benchmark indexes from London to Tokyo dropped following record declines in European and Asian factory production. “The economic news is going to continue to get worse before it gets better,” Leo Grohowski, the New York-based chief investment officer for the wealth management unit of Bank of New York Mellon Corp., which oversees $158 billion, told Bloomberg Radio. “The biggest single challenge in terms of the economy is the state of housing and it still remains precarious.” The S&P 500 sank 3.6 percent to 864.01 at 9:36 a.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 258.3 points, or 2.9 percent, to 8,570.74. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 3.4 percent to 1,483.41. About 16 stocks retreated for each that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. The five consecutive advances in the S&P 500 before today marked the benchmark gauge’s longest streak of gains since July 2007 and sent it up 19 percent from an 11-year low on Nov. 20. The index capped its steepest weekly rally in 34 years on Nov. 28 after the government agreed to protect Citigroup Inc. from further losses and carmakers weighed cutting costs to win federal aid. 2008 Slump The S&P 500 is down 41 percent this year as credit losses and writedowns at the world’s largest financial firms approach $1 trillion and economists increasingly forecast that the U.S. recession will be one of the most severe in the postwar era. Today is the first full day of trading following the Thanksgiving holiday Nov. 27 and a shorter session Nov. 28. GE, the world’s biggest maker of power-generation equipment, slid 99 cents to $16.18. Caterpillar, the largest maker of bulldozers, retreated $2.56 to $38.43. The ISM manufacturing index probably dropped to 37 last month, the lowest level since 1982, from 38.9 in October, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. A reading of 50 is the dividing line between expansion and contraction. ‘Much Lower’ Hess, the fifth-biggest U.S. oil company, slipped $3.69 to $50.35. Anadarko, the nation’s second-biggest independent oil producer, lost $2.88 to $38.17. Crude oil for January delivery declined 6 percent to $51.16 a barrel in New York. Slowing global growth means demand will be “much lower” than expected a month ago, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said after its Nov. 29 meeting in Cairo, deferring a decision to reduce output for another two weeks. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the world’s largest publicly traded producer of copper, retreated 9.1 percent to $21.81. Copper fell for a second day in Shanghai after China’s contraction in manufacturing signaled the growing risk of a slump in the world’s biggest consumer of the metal. Mentor Corp. soared 90 percent to $30.61. Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest health-care company, said it will acquire the breast-implant maker for $1.07 billion in cash. Holders of Mentor will get $31 a share, almost double the $16.15 close from Nov. 28. As the S&P 500 heads for its worst performance since 1931 the best money managers say Swiss industrial companies, Texas oil drillers and Japanese robot makers are too cheap to pass up. Fund managers Phillip Davidson, Stephen Docherty and Eric Cinnamond say they are all taking advantage by buying shares they say were unfairly punished. To contact the reporter on this story: Lynn Thomasson in New York at lthomasson@bloomberg.net.

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