By Riva Gold 

Concerns about the global economy weighed on stocks Tuesday, while the dollar sank to multi-month lows against the euro and yen.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 139 points, or 0.8%, to 17752 shortly after the opening bell. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.7%.

The declines come after U.S. stocks posted their biggest one-day advance in more than two weeks on Monday.

The Stoxx Europe 600 declined 1.4%, weighed by shares of mining companies.

Copper and iron ore prices fell sharply after a private gauge of Chinese manufacturing showed a dip in April, adding to concerns over the health of the world's second-largest economy.

Meanwhile, the European Commission said Tuesday that growth in the eurozone and the wider European Union will be slightly weaker this year than previously forecast, citing the economic slowdown in China as well as geopolitical tensions and uncertainty.

Mixed first-quarter earnings results also weighed on shares of European banks. Shares in UBS fell 7.3% after the Swiss lender reported a sharp fall in first-quarter profit, while Germany's Commerzbank declined 8.9% after it missed consensus estimates and reduced its profit outlook for the full year.

Shares in HSBC swung between small gains and losses after the British bank's first-quarter results exceeded expectations, but still reflected an 18% fall in first-quarter net profit.

In the U.S., Halliburton's quarterly loss widened, while results from Pfizer and CVS Health came in above forecasts for the first quarter. Halliburton dropped 2.5%, and Pfizer gained 2% and CVS edged up slightly.

"The market was appropriately conservative going into the quarter, but fortunately companies have been able to beat estimates," said John Bailer, portfolio manager at the Boston Company Asset Management. "What we need is earnings growth and earnings surprises," he added.

In currencies, the dollar continued to weaken after data Monday showed U.S. manufacturing activity was lackluster in April, adding to a string of sluggish U.S. economic reports.

The euro was up 0.3% against the dollar at $1.1564, after a seven-session climb sent the common currency to its highest level against the dollar in eight months. Speculators have reduced their net euro short positions for six consecutive weeks, while net dollar long positions fell last week to their lowest since June 2014, according to strategists at Rabobank.

The yen also hit an 18-month high against the dollar. The dollar was last down 0.5% against the yen at Yen105.8840.

The British pound hit its strongest level against the dollar since January, but pulled back slightly after the U.K. manufacturing purchasing managers index fell to its lowest level since February 2013.

Earlier, shares in Hong Kong ended down 1.9%, weighed by the weaker Chinese data. Shares in Shanghai, however, gained 1.9% as the market reopened after a holiday, spurred by President Xi Jinping's recently stated support for the "healthy development" of the country's stock markets.

Australia's S&P ASX 200 gained 2.1% after its central bank cut interest rates for the first time in a year. The Australian dollar fell sharply after the rate cut, weakening almost 2% against the dollar to as low as $0.7557.

Markets in Japan were closed for a holiday.

In commodities, Brent crude oil fell 0.6% to $45.54 a barrel, while gold edged up 0.2% to $1,297.80 an ounce. Copper futures in London declined 1.5% to $4,962 a ton.

Write to Riva Gold at riva.gold@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 03, 2016 09:56 ET (13:56 GMT)