Stocks Extend Losses on Glum Data

The Nikkei in Japan settled down 1.7%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 2% after the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said China's nonmanufacturing sector experienced its slowest growth in more than a year in May, dipping to 55.2 from 56.1 in April.

The DAX in Germany settled down by 1.2% as German Chancellor Angela Merkel once again expressed her aversion to jointly shared debt in the eurozone over the weekend.

"Rumors that Europeans are getting along and listening to Merkel," could potentially push the market upwards, said Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners.

Meanwhile, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that Spain's finance minister, Luis de Guindos, was in talks with European partners to strengthen the country's banking system without requiring an international bailout. A dip in Spain's May jobless numbers was a small positive.

After the bell on Monday, rating agency Egan Jones downgraded the United Kingdom's credit rating to AA minus from AA.

There was some feeling out there that market could be treading water for a while; although the trend for stocks is obviously negative right now.

"I think that the market is going to bounce around without much direction until we get to that moment in time where there are more data points coming out," said Chris Detmer, senior vice president at RBC Wealth Management.

"The market is holding its breath for June 17 Greek elections and June 19 and 20 Fed meeting," said Aaron Brachman, senior financial associate at RBC Wealth Management. "These are the two bigger market moving events."

The benchmark 10-year Treasury was down 20/32, raising the yield to 1.526%. The U.S. dollar was down 0.29% at $82.56, according to the U.S. dollar index.

July oil futures rose 75 cents to settle at $83.98 a barrel, and August gold futures slipped $8.20 to settle at $1,613.90 an ounce.

In corporate news, Chesapeake Energy(CHK) has bowed to pressure from billionaire investor Carl Icahn and is replacing nearly half of its board. The stock surged 6%.

WellPoint(WLP) has agreed to buy contact-lens maker 1-800 Contacts. A purchase price wasn't disclosed, but a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal the deal was worth close to $900 million. The shares lost 1.6%.