While you were sleeping: UPDATED Wall Street drops on lower oil prices

Wall Street slid with the price of oil, pushing down shares of Chevron and Exxon Mobil, as investors awaited a host of key events including a slew of corporate earnings and a Federal Reserve policy meeting.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 77.79 points, or 0.4%, at 18,493.06.

The Nasdaq Composite Index slipped fractionally to 5097.63 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 0.3% to 2168.48 after ending Friday at a record high.

"Earnings are the key this week, but there's also the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Democratic National Convention, so you have a lot of things that go right or wrong," John Canally, chief economic strategist at LPL Financial, told Bloomberg.

"We've run the market up to new all-time highs at peak valuations, so we have to hit a home run on earnings to get much higher from here."

US oil prices lost 2.4% to $US43.13 a barrel. Chevron fell 2.5% and Exxon Mobil declined 1.9%. Oil prices are their lowest level in three months amid concern about excess supply.

"We've got gasoline stocks that are through the roof ... And you have the spectre of turnaround season not too far in the horizon," Robert Yawger, senior vice president of energy futures at Mizuho Securities USA told Reuters.

Mr Yawger downgraded his price target on US crude to $US40 from $US45 a barrel, according to Reuters.

Tech sector remains buoyant
Even so, it wasn't all gloomy sentiment. Shares of Sprint Corporation jumped 27.3% after its latest quarterly earnings underpinned confidence that the company's turnaround is gaining traction.

"We expect that we will have adequate sources to provide all the capital necessary to fund the business and repay the debt maturities due in the 2016 financial year," Sprint chief financial officer Tarek Robbiati said on a conference call with analysts, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, Verizon Communications said it agreed to buy Yahoo for about $US4.8 billion in cash.

"Just over a year ago we acquired AOL to enhance our strategy of providing a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers," Verizon chairman and chief executive Lowell McAdam said in a statement.

"The acquisition of Yahoo will put Verizon in a highly competitive position as a top global mobile media company and help accelerate our revenue stream in digital advertising."

Shares of Yahoo traded 2.1% weaker at $US38.55, while shares of Verizon traded 0.6% lower.

Europe's Stoxx 600 Index finished the day with an advance of 0.2% from the previous close. France's CAC 40 index also rose 0.2%, while Germany's DAX index added 0.5%. UK's FTSE 100 index fell 0.2%.

A report showed that the Ifo institute's index of German business sentiment fell less than expected in July.

(BusinessDesk)

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