July 18 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell after Citigroup Inc., the country's largest financial-services firm, reported quarterly earnings that missed analysts' estimates.

Shares of Mylan Laboratories Inc. led the decline after the drugmaker for which Carl Icahn bid $5.39 billion said an unidentified investor tendered shares equal to Icahn's holding under the company's $1 billion stock buyback.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index retreated from a four-year high and headed toward its first decline in eight days.

``We're near the end'' of a bull market, said Ken Tower, chief market strategist at CyberTrader Inc., a unit of Charles Schwab Corp. ``Earnings growth is slowing. Economic growth is slowing,'' he said from Princeton, New Jersey.

The S&P 500 lost 4.27, or 0.4 percent, to 1223.65 as of 10:30 a.m. in New York, led by a drop in financial companies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 28.49, or 0.3 percent, to 10,612.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 7, or 0.3 percent, to 2149.78.

Profit growth among companies in the S&P probably slowed to 7.1 percent in the second quarter from 17 percent in the first, according to a Bloomberg analysis of Thomson data. About 150 S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report quarterly results this week, including Intel Corp., the world's No. 1 maker of semiconductors, and JPMorgan Chase & Co., the No. 3 U.S. bank.

Investors may be looking to comments from Alan Greenspan on July 20-21, in what may be his last appearance before Congress as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Almost two stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Some 242 million shares changed hands on the Big Board, 14 percent less than the same time a week ago.

Citigroup Falls

Citigroup slid $1.06, or 2.3 percent, to $45.36 for the biggest drop in the Dow average. The company reported earnings of 97 cents a share, less than the average analyst estimate of $1.02 in a Thomson Financial survey. Citigroup struggled to make money buying and selling debt and derivatives as the gap between short-term and long-term interest rates narrowed.

Mylan dropped 89 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $18.51 for the biggest loss in the S&P 500. The stockholder offered to sell 26.3 million shares, matching the total that billionaire investor Icahn reported owning in a November filing, Mylan said yesterday in a statement. Mylan said the tendering shareholder's identity wasn't disclosed. Icahn didn't return calls to his office yesterday.

Guidant Slumps

Guidant Corp., the heart-device maker being bought by Johnson & Johnson, slumped $1.21 to $68.20. The company said it is telling doctors that nine models of its cardiac pacemakers may need to be replaced after Guidant received reports of 69 devices that failed. U.S. regulators may classify the action a recall, Guidant said. Johnson & Johnson fell 4 cents to $64.99.

Bank of America Corp. lost 46 cents to $45.52 even after earnings exceeded forecasts. The No. 2 U.S. bank said second- quarter profit excluding some items was $1.08 a share, more than the $1.01 average analyst estimate in a Thomson poll.

MBNA Corp., which agreed in June to be purchased by Bank of America for $35 billion, fell 19 cents to $26.03 also after topping estimates. The company reported second-quarter profit of 50 cents a share, exceeding the 49-cent-estimate of analysts polled by Thomson.

A gauge of financial stocks, which makes up a fifth of the S&P 500, lost 0.6 percent and was the biggest contributor to the benchmark's decline among 10 industry groups. Second-quarter earnings for companies in the group probably increased 0.9 percent, based on estimates from analysts.

Acquisitions

Acquisitions helped lift Maytag Corp. and Stanley Works.

Maytag climbed $1.49, or 9.6 percent, to $16.94 for the best performance in the S&P 500. The appliance maker was offered $1.35 billion in cash and stock by Whirlpool Corp., topping bids from China's Haier Group and a group led by Ripplewood Holdings LLC. Whirlpool, the No. 1 U.S. home-appliance maker, bid $17 a share. Whirlpool rose $3.32 to $73.31.

Stanley Works rallied $4.16, or 8.9 percent, to $50.88. The biggest U.S. hand-tool producer said it agreed to buy Facom Tools from Fimalac SA for 410 million euros in cash ($494.1 million), almost doubling the size of its European operations.

Geron Corp. jumped $2.33 to $10.93. The developer of cell- based therapies for cancer said it agreed to collaborate with Merck & Co. on developing a cancer vaccine in exchange for certain payments and an equity investment by Merck. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

Economists expect a report this week to show that builders broke ground on 2.05 new million homes at an annual rate last month, up from 2.009 million in May, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Levy in New York at alevy5@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 18, 2005 10:33 EDT