NEW YORK, Oct 12 (AFP) - US stocks stumbled Tuesday as crude oil futures spiked above 54 dollars a barrel and the market was also pressured by a cautious outlook from Dutch electronics giant Philips.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 47.93 points, or 0.48 percent, to 10,034.04 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite sank 16.56 points, or 0.86 percent, to 1,912.20 at 1510 GMT.
The broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index declined 6.62 points, or 0.59 percent, to 1,117.77.
Hurting sentiment on Wall Street, crude oil futures rose as high as 54.45 dollars after the International Energy Agency raised its global oil demand forecast for 2004 by 240,000 barrels per day to 82.4 million, driven by stronger Asian and Russian demand.
"The stock market just can't seem to disconnect from oil prices and what we need are some strong catalysts," said Peter Cardillo, chief market analyst and strategist at SW Bach.
"Since the unemployment report (last week) wasn't a catalyst, obviously we're going to have to get some real strong guidance from corporate America to at least cushion the market from any further declines due to climbing oil prices."
Sparking concern in the semiconductor sector was a warning from Philips that it expected flat sales in its chip business in the fourth quarter and that it was seeing margin pressure in consumer electronics.
RBC Dain Rauscher analyst Bob Dickey said the peak of the earnings season is also keeping investors cautious.
"Typically, the third-quarter earnings reporting period puts the greatest pressure on those stocks that have been poor performers for much of the year, with the fundamental disappointment and the prices reaching a peak during this time," he said.
"This is what we believe creates the classic fall (autumn) decline in the market at this time of year."
Among firms reporting earnings, Merrill Lynch rallied 96 cents to 51.96 as the brokerage firm's earnings, while eight percent below last year's results, topped analyst forecasts at 920 million dollars.
Johnson and Johnson climbed 46 cents to 55.82 after the pharmaceutical group said its quarterly profits rose 13 percent from a year ago.
But tech shares were under pressure ahead of results from Intel and Yahoo, with the Philips' warning weighing on chips.
Intel slid 31 cents to 20.30, and the rest of the chip sector was dragged lower. Advanced Micro Devices fell 29 cents to 13.66 and Motorola dipped 17 cents to 18.33.
Yahoo shares retreated 29 cents to 33.73 ahead of its earnings report due after the bell.
General Motors lost 20 cents to 41.22 amid news that it may cut up to 12,000 jobs in Europe in a reorganization effort.
On the bond market, closed Monday for Columbus Day, prices were higher.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond fell to 4.088 percent from 4.133 percent and that on the 30-year bond to 4.868 percent against 4.902 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.