By Greg Morcroft, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The bloom came off the rose in the U.S. financial sector on Monday as banks led decliners following word of declining factory activity in the New York Federal Reserve’s region.
The Empire State index declined to negative 10.4 in September from negative 5.9 in August, according to the manufacturing survey compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Read more on the Empire State index.
Continuing anti-U.S. rioting and disturbances in the Mideast and escalating tensions between Japan and China also weighed.
The Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF XLF -0.52% , which tracks the financial stocks in the S&P 500 SPX -0.19% , fell 0.1%.
In the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.17% , Bank of America Corp. BAC -2.07% ] fell 0.7%, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM -0.78% shed 0.5%, American Express Co. AXP -0.05% shares fell 0.1%, and Travelers Cos. TRV -0.23% added a fraction.
Greg Morcroft is MarketWatch's financial editor in New York.
