* U.S. President Obama meets with top bankers
* Energy shares dip, oil falls 4 percent
* Dow off 1.5 pct, S&P off 1.4 pct; Nasdaq off 1.7 pct
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click []
(Updates to midday, changes byline)
By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK, March 27 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks slipped on
Friday as investors took profits following a recent surge, and
energy shares drooped along with the price of oil.
With developments in Washington increasingly setting the
market's direction, U.S. President Barack Obama -- who needs to
persuade banks to participate in his administration's plan to
fix the financial crisis -- is meeting with top bankers but has
no specific agenda, a senior White House advisor said. For more
see [].
Bank shares had been among the leaders in the recent
run-up, but Bank of America <BAC.N> was up only 0.3 percent to
$7.60 while JPMorgan Chase <JPM.N> was down 1.4 percent to
$28.70. The KBW bank index <.BKX>, down 0.8 percent for the
session, is, however, still up more than 60 percent from a low
set on March 6.
Exxon Mobil <XOM.N> and Chevron <CVX.N> were among the
Dow's top drags as U.S. crude futures <CLc1> fell more than 4
percent to about $52 per barrel amid economic concerns and a
stronger U.S. dollar, a day after closing at a four-month high.
Exxon fell 1.4 percent to $70.26 and Chevron sagged 1.3 percent
to $69.28.
"We've come a long way in a big hurry; it makes sense that
we would take a little breather," said Chip Hanlon, president
of Delta Global Advisors in Huntington Beach, California.
"It just looks like an unwinding of recent trends and
probably some profit-taking."
The Dow Jones industrial average <> fell 121.06 points,
or 1.53 percent, to 7,803.50. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index
<.SPX> dropped 11.89 points, or 1.43 percent, to 820.97. The
Nasdaq Composite Index <> lost 27.59 points, or 1.74
percent, to 1,559.41.
Stocks had rallied on increasing optimism that the worst of
the current downturn might be over and on government action
geared at stabilizing the ailing financial system.
The recent rally has taken the broad S&P 500 index up more
than 20 percent since it hit a 12-year low on March 9, although
it is off nearly 10 percent for the year so far.
Heading into today's session, the S&P 500 was at its most
overbought position since May 2008, according to its 50-day
relative strength index.
Gains on Thursday had helped push the Nasdaq back into
positive territory year-to-date but a decline in big-cap
technology shares pulled the index back under on Friday.
Shares of Intel <INTC.O> fell more than 2 percent to $15.46
after the chipmaker said it might issue up to $1 billion in
stock. Other standout decliners were Apple <AAPL.O>, down 2.3
percent to $107.36, and Microsoft <MSFT.O>, down 2.5 percent to
$18.35.
IBM <IBM.N> was the top drag in the Dow industrials, down
5.5 percent to $93.33.
A drop in commodities prices weighed on stocks in the
materials sector, and aluminum producer Alcoa <AA.N> fell 2.6
percent to $7.91. The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index of
commodities <.CRB> shrank nearly 2 percent.
General Motors <GM.N> was a bright spot, with its shares up
10.9 percent to $3.78 a day after Obama said a plan to help the
struggling U.S. auto industry would be unveiled soon, and after
news GM's German unit, Opel, forecast what could be the best
quarterly results in a decade. []
(Editing by James Dalgleish)
