NEW YORK — Bad economic news and doubts about the market’s ability to rally dealt stocks a huge setback Monday.
The Dow Jones industrials fell 187 points, their biggest drop since April 20.
All the major market indexes fell more than 2 percent.
Trading volume was light, suggesting an absence of buyers rather than a flood of sellers rushing to dump stocks, but the pullback nonetheless was another sign that the market’s spring rally has stalled.
The slide began in Asia and Europe and spread to the U.S. as a strong dollar pushed commodities prices sharply lower.
Stocks of energy and materials producers have been lifting the market in the past month, so the drop in prices left stocks without an important leg of support.
Meanwhile, new worries about the economy emerged after an index of manufacturing in New York indicated that demand has weakened in June.
The weaker report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York ran counter to the gradual improvement that traders have grown accustomed to with other economic readings.
Analysts said stocks are also losing ground because investors are questioning what it will take to move the market higher.
Ahead of Monday’s slide, the Standard & Poor’s 500 had jumped 39.9 percent since skidding to a 12-year low March 9.
Investors have been betting on an economic recovery, but questions about how long that might take are poking holes in the rally.
The unease about the economy’s recovery has kept stocks from rising as quickly in recent weeks as they did in March and April.
The Dow declined 2.1 percent to 8,612.13.
The broader S&P 500 index fell 22.49, or 2.4 percent, to 923.72, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 42.42, or 2.3 percent, to 1,816.38.
Traders said the dollar rose against most other major currencies after comments from Russia’s finance minister that the greenback likely would remain the world’s reserve currency.
Commodities including oil tend to be a hedge against a weak dollar. So when the greenback is stronger, investors feel less need to protect themselves against it and start selling commodities.
The Dow and the S&P 500 are up 12 of the past 14 weeks and the last four straight weeks.
But traders are having a harder time wringing advances from stocks as questions remain about whether unemployment, still-weak home prices and inflation will trip up a resurgence in the economy.
Harry Rady, chief executive of Rady Asset Management, said stocks have risen too fast given how troubled the economy remains.
“The market just seems to keep driving the car into the wall and then wonders why it can’t keep driving,” Rady said.
