Wall Street Retreats as Oil Drops

As of 12:27 p.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.55 points, or 0.21 percent to 11266.72, the Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 5.84 points, or 0.46 percent, to 1257.06 and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 3.53 points, or 0.16 percent, to 2241.85.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest U.S. mortgage- finance companies, led declines that sent the S&P 500 Financials Index to its lowest level since March 2003.

The Nasdaq Composite started the day with a 1 percent spike but then fell flat. Yahoo led the way on the Nasdaq 100, jumping 10 percent after billionaire investor Carl Icahn said Microsoft is still interested in acquiring the company if the company replace's its board. Yahoo was recently up 11.05 percent at $23.71 and Microsoft was down 0.88 percent at $25.75.

Equities gained support on a stronger dollar while tensions eased between Iran and the West weighed on the price of oil, with the August contract losing $5.64 to $139.65 a barrel.

United Airlines and Exxon Mobil Corp. rose sharply on the decline in crude oil futures. United was up 7.77 percent at $4.16 and Exxon was down 1.6 percent at $86.85.

Shares of the biggest U.S. automaker, General Motors Corp., gained 0.6 percent as oil fell and a Wall Street Journal Report that GM is considering more job cuts and whether to close more brands.

InBev signaled its intent to take its $46 billion effort to acquire Anheuser-Busch hostile, filing preliminary papers with the SEC on Monday that would pave the way for A-B shareholders to oust the company's board of directors.

Anheuser-Busch was up 0.24 percent at $61.82.

Anheuser has already turned down the bid, saying it undervalues the company. InBev, the Belgian-Brazilian brewer of Stella Artois and Beck's, requested that Anheuser respond within the next 10 days.