Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. health-care stocks declined, led by Merck & Co., after a Wall Street Journal report that the No. 2 U.S. drugmaker tried to stop safety concerns from wrecking the commercial prospects of its Vioxx painkiller. Benchmark indexes were little changed the day before the presidential election.

National polls show a statistical tie between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry.

``The election is an important issue and has been keeping the market from making any specific moves,'' said James Fisher, who manages $900 million at Univest Corp. of Pennsylvania. ``You have people waiting because this thing could drag out. It's the uncertainty and not knowing what the next six months holds.''

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 0.19 to 1130.01 as of 9:56 a.m. in New York with gains in PeopleSoft Inc. limiting the drop. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 2.08, or 0.1 percent, to 1972.91. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 7.53, or 0.1 percent, to 10,035.

Bush and Kerry were deadlocked with equal support among likely voters nationwide in polls by the Washington Post, Fox News, Reuters/Zogby and American Research Group that concluded on Oct. 30. Three other polls showed Bush with a lead of as much as 5 percentage points.

Benchmark indexes point to a tight race. The incumbent party has lost control of the White House every election year since 1932 that the Dow Jones Industrial Average has declined more than 0.5 percent in October, according to Merrill Lynch & Co. The Dow average declined 0.5 percent, while the S&P 500 rose 1.4 percent last month.

``The market is mirroring what the polls have expressed,'' said Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Robert W. Baird & Co. in Nashville, Tennessee. ``It's a dead heat.''

Merck, PeopleSoft

Merck, which withdrew from the market its Vioxx medication on Sept. 30 because of a link to heart disease, tumbled $1.93 to $29.38. People with access to internal documents that ``tend to reflect poorly on Merck'' allowed the Journal to see them, but the company didn't make available any other material to provide context, citing litigation, the newspaper said.

``These documents are pulled from the millions of documents Merck has produced to date during these legal proceedings,'' Merck spokesman Tony Plohoros, said in an emailed statement. ``Past experience of other companies in such situations suggests that documents will be deliberately presented out of context to advance the interest of the parties who have started Vioxx litigation.''

Pfizer Inc., which maker the competing Celebrex and Bextra painkillers, lost 25 cents to $28.70. An index of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies had the biggest drop among the S&P 500's 24 industry groups, losing 0.8 percent.

PeopleSoft jumped $2.23 to $23 after Oracle Corp. boosted its offer for the company to $24 a share from $21. The $8.8 billion offer is final, Oracle said in a statement. Oracle slipped 5 cents to $12.61.

Economic reports showed personal spending rose three times faster than incomes last month. Personal expenditures climbed 0.6 percent in October compared with a revised drop of 0.1 percent the month prior, the Commerce Department said. Personal income rose 0.2 percent last month following a revised 0.3 percent gain in August.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edgar Ortega in New York at ebarrales@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 1, 2004 09:57 EST