Stock Market Today: Stocks Drop as Hong Kong Unrest Rattles Markets

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stocks were sinking earlyaMonday and international markets declined as sentiment soured amid pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong. Violent clashes between pro-democracy protesters and police in Hong Kong weighed on Hong Kong's Hang Seng index.a The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.45%. The S&P 500 fell 0.66%. The Nasdaq a sanka1%. The Gold ETF SPDR Gold Trust aticked up 0.18%. a U.S. stocks rallied into the close Friday but ended with the biggest weekly decline since Aug. 1, after an upward revision to U.S. second-quarter GDP figures fueled expectations that the Federal Reserve will stay the course, moving against the tideaof easing at other major central banks. a Must Read: Warren Buffett's Top 10 Dividend Stocks U.S. personal income increased 0.3% in August, matching estimates,athe Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Monday.aPersonal spending rose by a slightly higher-than-expected 0.5%. However, on a three-month annualized basis, consumer spending has slowed to 3.8% from 4.2%. Lindsey Piegza,a chief economist at Sterne Agee, said consumers remain under pressure amid lackluster income growth. aChicago Fed President Charles Evansasaid Monday at a meeting of the National Association of Business Economics in Chicago that "we should be exceptionally patient in adjusting the stance of U.S. monetary policy ... before the Fed raises rates we should have a great deal of confidence that we won't be forced to backtrack on our moves." Pending homes sales data for August is scheduled for release at 10 a.m. EDT. In company news Monday,aPacific Investment Management Co., or Pimco, suffered roughly $10 billion of withdrawals following the departure on Friday of co-founder Bill Gross, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. Tibco Software jumped more thana21% after revealing that it is selling itself to Vista Equity Partners for $4.3 billion. SoftBank is in talks to buy or otherwise link up with DreamWorks Animation , people familiar with the negotiations told the Journal. DreamWorks soared over 19%. Canada's Encana isabuying Athlon Energy for $5.93 billion in an effort to boost is oil production by tapping into Texas's booming Permian Basin. Athlon shares rose 24.7%. Apple will be accused of prospering from illegal tax deals with the Irish government for more than two decades when the European Commission this week unveils details of a probe that could leave Apple with a record fine of as much as several billions of euros, the Financial Times reported. Apple lost 1.89%.a -- By Andrea Tse in New York Follow @AndreaTTse

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