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By Whitney Kisling Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell for a second day as lower oil prices dragged down energy producers and a JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgrade sent health-care companies lower. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. slipped as oil dropped as much as 2.5 percent. Cigna Corp. and Amgen Inc. lost at least 1.7 percent after JPMorgan cut its rating on health stocks to “underweight” from “neutral.” MetroPCS Communications Inc., the provider of prepaid wireless phone services, slid 31 percent for its steepest loss since going public in 2007 after results trailed analysts’ estimates. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, which retreated from a nine-month high yesterday, slipped 0.6 percent to 997.2 at 12:39 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 31.06 points, or 0.3 percent, to 9,249.91. About two stocks dropped for each that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. “The market has been over-optimistic about a robust recovery,” said David Pearl , who helps oversee $7.8 billion in assets at Epoch Investment Partners in New York. Since reaching a 12-year low of 676.53 on March 9, the S&P 500 has rebounded 48 percent through yesterday, the steepest rally over the same number of days since the Great Depression. Improving Financial Conditions Financial markets in the U.S. have recovered so much that they are now the healthiest since October 2007, when the S&P 500 set a record high. The Bloomberg U.S. Financial Conditions Index climbed to less than minus 1 on Aug. 3 for the first time since Oct. 31, 2007. It tracks how far bond- and money-market spreads as well as the S&P 500 and Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index stray from the averages from 1994 to June 2008. The U.S. economy’s worst contraction since the Great Depression is slowing faster than economists forecast. Gross domestic product shrank at a less-than-projected 1 percent annual rate in the second quarter. The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has risen three straight months, including the 0.7 percent improvement in June that topped estimates. Health care shares slid 1.1 percent as a group after Thomas Lee , the New York-based equity strategist at JPMorgan, downgraded the industry to “underweight,” saying the group has less “upside potential to earnings” than other industries. Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology company, lost 1.7 percent to $61.25, while Gilead Sciences Inc. slid 1.5 percent to $46.12. Health-Care Slump The group has fallen 2.2 percent so far this week, compared with a 1.3 percent gain in the S&P 500. Cigna, a life and health insurance company, declined 2.2 percent to $26.95. Celgene Corp., a global biopharmaceutical company, fell 3.3 percent to $54.62 after it was cut to “underperform” from “neutral” at Cowen & Co. Technology and telephone shares slid after several companies announced disappointing earnings or forecasts. MetroPCS tumbled 31 percent to $8.70 after its quarterly profit missed analysts’ estimates by 30 percent, according to Bloomberg data. Verizon Communications Inc. slipped 1.3 percent to $30.85. Cisco Systems Inc. slipped 0.4 percent to $22.09 after saying revenue will fall 15 percent to 17 percent in the fiscal first quarter, which ends in October. That equates to between about $8.6 billion and $8.8 billion, down from $10.4 billion a year earlier. A group of energy companies slid 0.9 percent, for the second-biggest decline of 10 industry groups in the S&P 500. Crude oil for September delivery fell 87 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $71.10 a barrel. That curbed oil’s gain of about 60 percent so far in 2009. Baker Hughes Downgrade Baker Hughes Inc. , the world’s third-largest oilfield- services provider, lost 2.9 percent to $37.56 after it was cut to “underperform” from “outperform” at CLSA Capital Markets. Exxon declined for the third straight day, losing 0.6 percent to $69.63. Sunoco Inc. dropped the most in a month, slipping 3.1 percent to $25.59. The largest refiner in the U.S. Northeast had a second-quarter loss as the recession curbed fuel demand. Sunoco shares have dropped 42 percent this year, compared with a 0.9 percent gain in the S&P energy group. Citigroup Inc., the New York-based bank rescued by the U.S. government after a record loss last year, helped lead stocks higher earlier, after the Bank of England said it will pump $84 billion into the economy and held its interest rate at 0.5 percent. Citigroup added 5.6 percent to $3.78 in the fifth straight day of gains, while Bank of America climbed 1.4 percent to $16.89 in its longest gaining streak since 2006. To contact the reporter on this story: Whitney Kisling in New York at wkisling@bloomberg.net .