U.S. stocks fall after Dowâ??s rally

The stock market on Monday closed out its worst day so far this year, bringing the Dow average back below 14,000.

The drop came on the first trading day after the index closed above 14,000 for the first time since the financial crisis.

The Dow ended down 0.9 percent.

Other indexes fell slightly more. The Standard & Poor's 500 index had a loss of 1.2 percent.

Technology stocks fell more than other sectors, pulling the Nasdaq lower. The technology-heavy index fell 1.5 percent.

Falling stocks outnumbered rising ones nearly four to one on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was average, 3.4 billion shares.

The declines followed a surge Friday that pushed the Dow over 14,000 for the first time since 2007, before the financial meltdown that routed world markets.

Friday was only the tenth time in its history that the Dow closed above 14,000. The first was in July 2007; the rest were in October of that year. The index closed Friday just 155 points shy of its record high, set that October.

The rally was powered by solid economic data, including a January jobs report that showed the labor market is strengthening gradually. A broad measure of manufacturing also rose sharply.

The Dow is up 6 percent this year. Yet Wall Street's celebratory mood was a distant memory Monday, as U.S. stocks followed European markets lower. France's CAC-40 closed down 3 percent, Germany's DAX 2.5 percent.

It started to look like things in the market are maybe getting a little ahead of themselves, compared to some of the data we've seen, said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Asset Management Group.