NEW YORK - US STOCKS closed lower on Monday on concerns over corporate earnings and plunging retail sales as well as deteriorating US commercial property values in an economy reeling from prolonged recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 59.18 points (0.69 per cent) to 8,519.93 at the closing bell, off the day's lows, after ending the previous week down 0.59 per cent.

The tech-rich Nasdaq gave up 31.97 points (2.04 per cent) to 1,532.35 as large-cap technology stocks dragged the index lower.

The Standard & Poor's 500 broad-market index also fell 16.24 points (1.83 per cent) to 871.64.

The market opened with more bleak news as Japan's iconic Toyota auto company forecast its first ever operating loss, European stocks plunged on pre-Christmas gloom and China's central bank further cut interest rates to cope with the global economic downturn.

As trading on Wall Street began on Monday in a Christmas holiday-shortened week, stocks continued their slide with technology and financials particularly weak, said market analysis firm Charles Schwab & Co.

'Life insurance companies are down on worries about commercial mortgage defaults' after the Wall Street Journal reported that property developers had asked the government for assistance, it said.

'Retailers are struggling amid fears that steep discounts have been used to entice consumer spending, and that cold and snowy weather in many markets weighed down holiday spending,' it said. -- AFP