Falling US stocks today hurt shares of energy companies such as Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips.
Oil prices slid below $75 a barrel as dealers took profits from last week's surge to a record high, and Iran reiterated it would not use oil as a weapon in its dispute over uranium enrichment with the West.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 23.53 points, or 0.21 per cent, at 11,323.92. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 4.59 points, or 0.35 per cent, at 1,306.69. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 12.23 points, or 0.52 per cent, at 2,330.63.
"People are concerned about interest rates, inflation and oil," said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co. "The earnings season is pretty much good on the whole, but people are taking profits anyway."
US light, sweet crude fell 52 cents to $74.65 a barrel, down from the $75.35 record high struck on Friday, the fourth consecutive day for a new peak. Shares of Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, were down 1 per cent at $64.34, and ConocoPhillips lost 1.5 per cent to $71.48.
Earnings for Standard & Poor's 500 companies are expected to increase 12.5 per cent for the first quarter, up from a forecast of about 11 per cent the week before, according to Reuters Estimates.