By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks dipped on Tuesday after the International Monetary Fund reduced its growth forecasts for 2015 and 2016, but the outlook also boosted hopes central banks would take more aggressive policy moves to spark economic improvement.
The lower forecasts implied less demand for fuel through 2016, contributing to another fall in crude oil, which pressured energy names despite some bullish results from major companies in the sector. The S&P energy index lost 0.5 percent.
The IMF cut its forecasts for both years by 0.3 percentage points and advised advanced economies to maintain accommodative monetary policies to avoid increases in real interest rates as cheaper oil increases deflation risk.
"It looks like the Fed is super happy to pass that torch to the next central bank, and that would be the ECB as our contestant today," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst, Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.
"The problem is that while things have improved and our banks are much more stable, it's not necessarily a driver for higher economic growth."
The European Central Bank is expected to announce on Thursday a program of bond buying to boost the region's flagging economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 56.35 points, or 0.32 percent, to 17,455.22, the S&P 500 lost 2.76 points, or 0.14 percent, to 2,016.66 and the Nasdaq Composite added 6.97 points, or 0.15 percent, to 4,641.36.
U.S. crude fell 4.1 percent to $46.69 per barrel, keeping the commodity - which is down more than 55 percent since June - near its lowest level since 2009.
Halliburton Co and Baker Hughes Inc warned that a fall in drilling activity would hurt results in 2015, though the companies also reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter profits. Halliburton rose 0.5 percent to $39.32 while Baker gained 0.6 percent to $56.89.
Johnson & Johnson fell 3.3 percent to $100.60 as the biggest drag on both the Dow and S&P 500 after adjusted earnings beat expectations but revenue missed forecasts.
Morgan Stanley reported a drop of 81 percent in revenue from trading fixed-income securities, currencies and commodities, though earnings rose on a sharp drop in legal costs. Shares fell 1.1 percent to $34.50.
FXCM Inc plummeted 88.7 percent to $1.43 on volume of over 77 million shares, its most active day ever. The retail foreign exchange broker on Friday said it would get a $300 million loan from Leucadia National Corp to keep operating after losing millions from a recent surge of the Swiss franc.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,071 to 989, for a 2.09-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 1,733 issues fell and 973 advanced, for a 1.78-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.
The S&P 500 was posting 45 new 52-week highs and 17 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 54 new highs and 97 new lows.
(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
