Retail stocks lead US equities lower

 Retail stocks, including tech giant Apple, led the broader market lower Monday following a disappointing accounting of the "Black Friday" shopping weekend.
At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 17,780.97, down 47.27 points (0.27 percent).
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 14.04 (0.68 percent) to 2,053.52, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index sank 64.28 (1.34 percent) to 4,727.35. Apple's 3.3 percent drop weighed on both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500.
Retailers ranging from shopping giant Wal-Mart (-1.5 percent) to department store Macy's (-2.7 percent) and electronics vendor Best Buy (-5.5 percent) suffered after the National Retail Federation said that a survey of consumers estimated that the average weekend shopper spent 6.4 percent less than a year ago.
The day after Thursday's Thanksgiving Day holiday, known as "Black Friday," unofficially kicks off the critical year-end shopping season.
"It was a tough day for anything that is tied to the consumer," said Michael James, managing director of equity trading, Wedbush Securities.