* U.S. stocks off on fears corporate earnings to be weak
* Oil falls after IEA cuts 2009 world demand forecast more
* Bonds rise on uncertainty over corporate earnings.
* Dollar, yen ease vs euro as safe-harbor buying slides
(Recasts with U.S. markets, changes dateline, previous TOKYO)
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, April 13 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks slipped on
Monday, pulled lower as energy stocks retreated on a decline in
crude oil prices to below $50 a barrel and on investors'
jitters ahead of the release of U.S. corporate earnings this
week.
Light volume exacerbated price moves across asset classes,
with many financial centers closed in Europe and parts of Asia
for the Easter holiday.
The dollar and yen fell against the euro as a five-week
rally in U.S. stocks and growing hopes that the global crisis
may have passed its worst point have helped erode the
safe-haven appeal of the U.S. and Japanese currencies.
U.S. Treasury debt prices rose as weaker U.S. stocks and
uncertainty about a week packed with corporate earnings from a
dismal first quarter lifted the appeal of government bonds.
"Investors have very little confidence about when they're
going to see the trough of earnings," said Andrew Milligan,
head of global strategy at Edinburgh-based Standard Life
Investments.
Investors would like to know if the worse is over, or if
more downside is in store," said Milligan, who spoke while in
New York. "The outlook statements have been vague. They have
not been firmly negative or to be taken as a strong signal."
Large U.S. banks, including Goldman Sachs <GS.N>, JPMorgan
<JPM.N> and Citigroup <C.N>, which have been battered by the
financial crisis, report their latest quarterly results this
week. General Electric <GE.N> also is set to report this week.
"Every professional investor knows you cannot sustain the
kind of moves we've had in the last five weeks, so having
corrections in the early stages is more than predictable," said
Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer of Johnson Illington
Advisors in Albany, New York.
Around 1:30 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average <>
dropped 37.36 points, or 0.46 percent, to 8,046.02. The
Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> gained 0.02 point, or 0.00
percent, to 856.58. The Nasdaq Composite Index <> fell
6.92 points, or 0.42 percent, to 1,645.62.
Shares of General Motors <GM.N> led stocks lower, falling
more than 16 percent after a newspaper reported the U.S.
Treasury Department is directing the troubled automaker to
prepare for a bankruptcy filing by June 1.
The International Energy Agency deeply cut its forecast for
oil demand on Friday, offsetting the impact of data showing
Chinese crude imports rose to their second-highest ever.
The IEA said world oil demand would fall by 2.4 million
barrels per day this year compared with 2008 as the rate of
contraction in fuel consumption reached levels last seen in the
early 1980s.
U.S. light sweet crude <CLc1> fell $1.47 to $50.77, while
ICE Brent crude <LCOc1> shed $3.00 to $51.06. Earlier in the
global session, oil fell briefly to below $49 per barrel.
The prospect of further purchases of Treasuries by the
Federal Reserve, part of its effort to keep down longer-term
interest rates in support of housing, also lent support to bond
prices.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note <US10YT=RR> rose
17/32 in price to yield 2.86 percent. The 2-year U.S. Treasury
note <US2YT=RR> gained 4/32 in price to yield 0.89 percent.
The dollar fell against a basket of major currencies, with
the U.S. Dollar Index <.DXY> off 1.02 percent at 84.664.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar <JPY=> fell 0.12 percent
at 100.10/ from a previous session close of 100.22.
Gold climbed in thin holiday trade as the dollar dropped
and stock markets weakened. Spot gold prices <XAU=> rose $12.50
to $893.15 an ounce.
The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> rose 0.73 percent to 268.80.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei <> underperformed the rest of
Asia to close down 0.4 percent at 8924.43.
(Editing by Dan Grebler)
