国际英语新闻：U.S. stocks retreat, strong dollar weighs

NEW YORK, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks lost ground on Tuesday, with all 10 sectors in Standard & Poor's 500 ending lower, as investors seemed to have little intention to push equities a further step higher after weeks of gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 60.09, or 0.53 percent, to 11,346.75. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 9.85 points, or 0.81 percent, to 1,213.40 and the Nasdaq was down 17.07 points, or 0.66 percent, to 2,562.98.

Tuesday's move came after a rally that pushed major indexes to the highest level in more than two years last week, boosted by a 600-billion-U.S.-dollar bond-buying program from the Federal Reserve. However, the momentum seemed to fade as more and more investors began to doubt the effect of the new round of quantitative easing.

Meanwhile, few investors have intention to push equities higher after weeks of solid gains. With the S&P 500 rallying more than 17 percent since the end of August, many trades were looking for reasons to book profits.

The U.S. dollar, which has been under great pressure these days, rebounded on Tuesday, as new troubles emerged in Ireland, one of the weaker countries that use the euro. There are mounting anticipations in the market that the Irish government will have to ask for financial assistance.

Commodities experienced a crazy session on Tuesday, with both crude and gold seeing rapid reversal in the afternoon.

Benchmark oil for December delivery lost 34 cents to settle at 86.72 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after it hit the highest level since October 2008.

Gold for December delivery drifted lower in after hours trading, after setting a new record high during the session.

Among stocks in focus, oil giant Chevron Corp. said before the opening bell that it will pay 3.2 billion dollars in cash and assume 1.1 billion dollars in debt to purchase gas producer Atlas Energy.

Shares of Atlas soared 33.98 percent, to settle at 42.50 dollars per share while Chevron lost 1.46 percent, to end at 83.56 dollars per share.