Oil drop, China data drag Wall Street lower

U.S. stocks ended near the lows of the day on Tuesday as energy shares tumbled alongside the price of oil and soft Chinese trade data rekindled fears that the global economy is weaker than anticipated.

U.S. crude futures CLc1 fell more than 4 percent in post-settlement trading, in their largest daily decline since bottoming so far for the year on Feb. 11. Since that low, the U.S. barrel of crude rose as much as 45.5 percent.

Despite the rebound in crude prices, oversupply and expectations of weak demand from China have weighed on investor sentiment. The price of oil and equity indexes have been strongly correlated this year.

" While I' d love to see oil break out, I do not think it will happen yet," said Uri Landesman, president at Platinum Partners in New York.

Goldman Sachs analysts said the recent rally in oil was premature as prices would need to remain lower for longer to help rebalance the market later in the year.

China' s February trade performance was far worse than economists had expected, with exports tumbling the most in more than six years. The 16th-straight monthly decline in imports weighed on stocks in the basic materials sector .SPLRCM, which was down 2 percent.

Read more .... L i n k