While you were sleeping: UPDATED Wall St loses for most sessions in a year

Wall Street blue chip stocks have logged their longest losing streak in nearly a year, while US oil prices extended losses and settled below $US40 a barrel.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average's moves mark a reversal from July, when it closed at a record seven times and posted the biggest one-month gain since March.

It's the first time the blue-chip index has closed down seven sessions in a row since August 2015.

Shares of retailers and car makers fell amid concern that a better-than-expected pace of consumer spending was not sustainable.

At the close, the Dow was down 90.74 points, or 0.5% at 18,313.77. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.9% to 5137.73 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 0.6% to2157.03.

The Dow's fall was led by Pfizer and Goldman Sachs, down 2% and 1.4% respectively. Bucking the trend were Procter & Gamble and Exxon Mobil, recently up 0.5% and 0.3% respectively.

Pfizer declined after the company reported quarterly results that surpassed estimates but kept its full-year outlook unchanged.

A Commerce Department report showed consumer spending rose more than expected in June, up 0.4%. Incomes gained 0.2%, which was below expectations.

"The consumer is on a solid track," Thomas Simons, a senior money-market economist in New York at Jefferies, told Bloomberg.

"The momentum is going to continue into the third quarter and is fuelled by strength in the labour market."

Big retailers' shares fall
Yet shares of Macy's, Kohl's and Nordstrom all slid on concern that US consumer spending is outpacing an increase in income.

Macy's shares traded 7.25% lower, while those of Kohl's fell 8% and those of Nordstrom slid 7%.

"It's not sustainable, and items like clothing are among the first things that are going to get cut out of that spending," Bridget Weishaar, an analyst at Morningstar Investment Service, told Bloomberg.

Shares of Ford and General Motors also fell, down 4.2% and 4.5% respectively, as both car makers reported July US sales short of estimates.

"What is interesting to note is that while overall national retail spending remains strong and consumer confidence is relatively unchanged, we are probably seeing some attempts in incentive spending to boost auto sales beyond its organic demand," Oliver Strauss, TrueCar's chief economist, told Reuters.

Biogen shares rose 9.4%, their biggest one-day percentage gain in 2016, after the Wall Street Journal reported that the company had drawn takeover interest from drug companies including Merck and Allergan. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index rose 0.2%, reversing earlier losses.

Oil enters bear market
US crude oil prices, which slid in July on growing concerns of a supply glut, fell 1.4% to $US39.51 a barrel. Oil entered a bear market on Monday, when it closed down more than 20% from its early June peak.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index finished the day with a slide of 0.6% from the previous close. The UK's FTSE 100 index declined 0.7%, while Germany's DAX index and France's CAC 40 index each sank 1.8%.

Germany's Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank fell to record lows, leading a drop in the Stoxx Europe 600 Banks Index.

"I don't want to say it but it's Armageddon for the banks," if the index drops any further, Joe Tracy, head of continental European equities at Svenska Handelsbanken in Stockholm, told Bloomberg.

(BusinessDesk)