Stocks Pare Losses Ahead of Close
That said, "we do not expect the outgoing government to jump to remedy slow domestic demand with fiscal stimulus," noted Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. "If needed, this task will be left to incoming leaders."
Bank of America has slashed its full-year growth projection for China to 7.7% from 8%.
September crude oil futures settled down 14 cents at $92.73 a barrel and December gold futures settled down $10.20 at $1,612.60.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury slipped 2/32, lifting the yield to 1.669%. The greenback was down 0.18%, according to the dollar index.
The FTSE in London settled down by 0.26% and the DAX in Germany closed 0.50% lower.
"Euro issues are still around," said Paul Donovan, global economist at UBS. "German political figures have been making nasty comments about Greece. The German economy minister suggested a Greek exit might be manageable; economists worry that politicians might really believe that to be true."
On Monday, official data showed that Greece's economy contracted 6.2% in the second quarter compared with a year ago.
The Hong Kong Hang Seng index close down 0.27% and the Nikkei in Japan finished flat.
In corporate news, Sears(SHLD) shares gained nearly 6% as the company prepared to spin off its Hometown and Outlet stores and some hardware stores into a separate publicly traded company.
Shares of British soccer club Manchester United(MANU) rose 1% in their second day of trading, closing at $14.15, just above their IPO pricing.
Groupon(GRPN) endured a volatile regular trading session then saw its shares tank in late trades after the company reported an above-consensus profit for the second quarter but came in light on the top line.
The Chicago-based company posted non-GAAP earnings of $53.8 million, or 8 cents a share, for the three months ended June 30 on revenue of $568.3 million. The average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters was for a profit of 3 cents a share in the quarter on revenue of $573.1 million.