By Whitney Kisling and Daniela Silberstein April 7 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks retreated, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index falling from an 18-month high as commodity producers followed energy and metal prices lower. U.S. Steel Corp. and AK Steel Holding Corp. dropped as metals prices decreased. Las Vegas Sands Corp. slid after its shares were downgraded at UBS AG. Visa Inc. slipped before a report today on consumer credit. The S&P 500 lost 0.3 percent to 1,186.14 at 9:35 a.m. in New York. During the first quarter the gauge rallied 4.9 percent, the biggest advance to a start of the year since 1998. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 0.4 percent, or 40.13 points, to 10,929.86 today. “The S&P and all 10 sectors are overbought and that’s weighing a bit on the market,” said David Lutz, managing director of equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. in Baltimore. “There’s also still a lot of sovereign concerns out there. Greece’s borrowing costs have jumped to a record high.” Most U.S. stocks rose yesterday, led by banks, as investors bet that the Federal Reserve will keep its benchmark interest rate at a record low to safeguard the economic recovery and lenders rallied on analyst upgrades, overshadowing earlier concerns that Greece’s rescue package would unravel. The country’s budget issues have worried investors this year as it struggles to fund the European Union’s largest budget deficit. The extra yield, or spread, between Greek 10-year bonds and benchmark German bunds widened to 407 basis points today, the most since the introduction of the euro in 1999. S&P 500 Rally The S&P 500 has rallied 76 percent since March last year as the Fed maintained record low interest rates and the economy began to recover from the worst recession since World War II. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is scheduled to speak about economic challenges in Dallas today. More than three-quarters of stocks in the S&P 500 are overbought as of the April 5 close, according to Bespoke Investment Group LLC, which identified shares that are at least one standard deviation above their 50-day moving average. That reading is the highest since the bull market began in March 2009 and indicates equities may see “short-term losses,” Harrison, New York-based Bespoke said in a note to clients. “We’ve had a relatively impressive up move and it wouldn’t be surprising if the market takes a breather,” said Daniel Knuchel, who oversees about $3 billion as chief investment officer at AAM Privatbank AG in Zurich. “The performance in the first quarter was good and it won’t be able to continue at that pace.” Metals Retreat U.S. Steel fell 0.3 percent to $69.50, while AK Steel lost 0.5 percent to $24.87. Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, slipped 0.2 percent to $15. Copper fell from a 20- month high in New York and London on a stronger dollar and concern that slower bookings to remove metal from stockpiles signal weaker demand. Zinc and nickel also fell in London. Las Vegas Sands, the casino operator expanding in Macau and Singapore, slid 2.7 percent to $22.79 after it was cut to “neutral” from “buy” at UBS. The shares, which have risen 57 percent in 2010 before today, would be more attractive at a lower price, UBS said. AMB Property Corp. said first-quarter earnings, excluding some items, probably were 30 cents a share at most. That’s less than the average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey. The shares declined 2.2 percent to $28. Visa, the world’s biggest payments network, slid 0.3 percent to $92.14. The Fed may report at 3 p.m. in Washington that consumer credit decreased $0.7 billion in February, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. --Editors: Michael P. Regan, Joanna Ossinger. To contact the reporters on this story: Daniela Silberstein in Zurich at dsilberstei2@bloomberg.net; Whitney Kisling in New York at wkisling@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Baker at nbaker7@bloomberg.net.

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