Companies like miners, banks and chemical makers, whose fortunes are most closely tied to the prospects for growth, fell the most. That's a sign investors are becoming less confident in the U.S. economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 200 points in afternoon trading. Bank of America fell 2.3 percent, or 31 cents, to $13.04, the biggest percentage drop in the Dow.

The troubling economic data included weak hiring at private companies, orders to U.S. factories that were lower than expected and sluggish job growth in the service sector.

Investors have become increasingly sensitive to economic reports in the last two weeks. They are trying to anticipate when the Federal Reserve will pull back on its $85 billion of bond purchases a month. That program has supported markets this year, and on some days stocks have even rallied on speculation that an ailing economy would ensure the stimulus will remain in place.

"We're pleased to see the market sell off on some bad news," said John Lynch, a regional chief investment officer for Wells Fargo private bank. "The whole idea that bad news was good news was frustrating because it suggests to me that the markets are becoming too Fed-dependent."

Investors were also unnerved by a plunge in mortgage applications last week. That's a disappointment because the rebound in housing has been one of the key factors supporting the stock market's record-breaking rally this year.

Applications for home loans dropped 11.5 percent from a week earlier, the Mortgage Bankers Association said. The decline came as mortgage rates rose the highest point since April 2012. The rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.07 percent last week from 3.90 percent.

Housing stocks slumped in response. D.R. Horton drop 61 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $22.31. Beazer Homes fell 46 cents to $18.91, a decline of 2.2 percent.

The rise in mortgage rates is due in large part to a jump in the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. The yield climbed as high as 2.2 percent last week, the highest in more than two years.

There was also disappointing news on hiring, another one of the key supports for the market's rally this year.

A measure of employment in the service sector fell to the lowest level since last July. That's a troubling sign because service companies, a broad category that includes entertainment, transportation and health care, have been the main source of job gains in the past several months.

That report was released shortly after payroll provider ADP said U.S. businesses added just 135,000 jobs in May, the second straight month of weak gains. The increases are much lower than those reported over the winter, which averaged more than 200,000 a month from November through February.

Stocks started the day lower and continued to slide throughout the day.

With an hour of trading left, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 19 points, or 1.2 percent, to 1,612. The index is about 3 percent below its record close of 1,669 reached May 21.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 191 points, or 1.3 percent, to 14,985. It fell as much as 231 points. The Dow hasn't been below 15,000 since May 7.

The losses were broad. All 10 industry groups in the index declined. The sell-off was led by companies that make basic materials, industrial companies and banks.

As traders sold stocks, the moved money into the haven of U.S. government bonds. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.09 percent from 2.15 percent late Tuesday.

A global sell-off before stock markets opened in New York was also making investors nervous.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index had another day to forget. Investors were disappointed at the lack of detail in a keynote speech on the economy from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Nikkei lost 3.8 percent to 13,014. It's now down 20 percent from its peak in mid-May, after soaring at the start of the year thanks to aggressive stimulus measures from the Bank of Japan.

"I'm very concerned about what's going on in Japan," said Doug Cote, chief market strategist at ING. "Some people might be scratching their head and saying that it could happen to us."

European stock markets also fell. Indexes fell 1.9 percent in France, 1.2 percent in Germany and 2.1 percent in Britain.

In commodities trading, the price of crude oil rose 43 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $93.74 a barrel. Gold edged up $1.30 to settle at $1,398.50 an ounce. The dollar fell against the euro and the Japanese yen.

In other trading, the Nasdaq composite dropped 37 points, or 1.1 percent, to 3,407.

Among other stocks making big moves:

Walgreen rose 93 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $48.94 after the company reported revenue from established stores beat analysts' expectations for May, even though a rise in generic drugs continues to hurt revenue at the nation's largest drugstore chain.

Apple fell $2.44, or 0.5 percent, to $447 after a U.S. trade agency issued a ban on imports of Apple's iPhone 4 and a variant of the iPad 2 after finding the devices violate a patent held by South Korean rival Samsung Electronics.

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Universal has acquired the rights to adapt "Vexille," a 2007 Japanese animated film about the titular female agent who must investigate whether the Japanese are illicitly developing robotic technology, multiple individuals with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

Evan Spiliotopoulos, who wrote MGM's upcoming "Hercules" moving starring Dwayne Johnson, will adapt the film for a live-action film. Tripp Vinsion, who will produce alongside Beau Flynn, initially optioned the rights and brought Spiliotopoulos on to write. Vinson produced "Red Dawn" and "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island."

Spiliotopoulos, represented by UTA, DJ Talbot and attorney Sean Marks, has a close relationship with Universal from his work on "Snow White and the Huntsman" and could work on another project with the studio as well before "Vexille" gets made.

The newest drug-sniffing dog on the police force in Bremerton, near Seattle, is one of a few police dogs in Washington state that are not trained to point out pot during searches. Other police departments are considering or in the midst of re-training their dogs to ignore pot as well, part of the new reality in a state where voters last fall legalized marijuana use.

"We wanted to train our dog on what was truly illegal substances, that would be heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine," said Dusty's handler, Officer Duke Roessel, who added that Dusty nabbed five pounds of meth during that recent search.

Police departments in Bremerton, Bellevue and Seattle, as well as the Washington State Patrol, have either put the dogs through pot desensitization training or plan not to train them for marijuana detection.

The law decriminalized possession of up to an ounce of the drug for individuals over 21 years old. It also barred the distribution and growth of marijuana outside the state-approved system.

Police say that having a K-9 unit that doesn't alert to pot will lessen challenges to obtaining search warrants because the dog won't be pointing out possible legal amounts of the drug. Traditionally, dogs are trained to alert on the smell of marijuana, heroin, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and cocaine. They can't tell which one it is or how much of each there is.

(Reuters) - Nike Inc is dropping its partnership with the Livestrong Foundation, the cancer charity founded by disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, the latest repercussion from the doping scandal that last year stripped him of his titles.

Nike said on Tuesday it would end production of its Livestrong gear and apparel after the 2013 holiday line, concluding a long-standing licensing agreement for footwear and apparel between the two that helped Livestrong raise a total of $100 million over the course of the partnership.

"We expected changes like this," Katherine McLane, a Livestrong spokeswoman, said in a conference call with reporters. "Could there be fallout? Of course," she said. "We remain enormously confident...We are in strong fiscal shape."

When Armstrong left Livestrong's board, Nike said it would still back the charity, but no longer sponsor the man behind it.

However, Nike spokeswoman Mary Remuzzi told Reuters late on Tuesday that the decision to drop the partnership was taken as sales of the products had not met company's expectations.

Nike also distributed Livestrong's ubiquitous yellow wrist-bands, of which 87 million were sold.

Armstrong founded Livestrong in 1997 after being diagnosed with testicular cancer. The group flourished during his cycling career in which he won the Tour de France seven times.

The cyclist, who stepped down from Livestrong's board last October, admitted in January to systematic use of banned, performance-enhancing drugs after years of denials.

"This does show there are pros and cons of (a philanthropic foundation) being so closely associated with one person," said Patrick Rooney, associate dean of academic affairs and research at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

Still, Rooney predicted a large enough number of people would be able to separate Armstrong's misdeeds and the foundation's good works that it could survive.

Livestrong said its 2013 budget is $38.4 million, a 10.9 percent reduction from 2012, but that revenue projections were ahead by 2.5 percent.

Livestrong has similar licensing deals with sports eyewear maker Oakley, owned by Italy's Luxottica and others.

Nike will benefit from distancing itself from the charity and from the scandal-tainted athlete, said Robert Boland, a professor of sport management at New York University's Tisch Center.

"Their relationship with Livestrong was so based on Lance Armstrong and his story that it's almost impossible to separate them from a branding standpoint," Boland said. "The chief thing that is motivating Nike is they're looking to move on and put their years with Lance Armstrong behind them."

(Reporting by Phil Wahba, Ellen Wulfhorst and Scott Malone; additional reporting by Sakthi Prasad; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Leslie Adler, Marguerita Choy and Dan Grebler)

(Reuters) - Scott London, a former senior partner with accounting firm KPMG, agreed to plead guilty to securities fraud for his involvement in insider trading, according to an announcement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.

London, 50, supervised more than 500 accounting professionals at KPMG and oversaw audits of Herbalife Ltdand Skechers USA Inc , according to prosecutors. He faces a maximum term of 20 years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $5 million or twice the gross gain or gross loss resulting from his offense, according to the plea agreement.

London's plea agreement comes about a week after his one-time golfing buddy Bryan Shaw pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud for his role in the scheme.

London and his lawyer Harland Braun were not immediately available to comment.

Shaw, a jeweler, gave London cash, an expensive watch and other gifts in exchange for tips on Herbalife, Skechers and other companies that helped him generate more than $1 million in illegal profits, according to prosecutors.

Shaw sometimes gave London bags filled with cash at meetings on street corners and in parking lots, according to prosecutors.

In his plea agreement, London admitted that he gave Shaw inside information regarding at least 14 separate earnings announcements or acquisitions by KPMG clients, including Herbalife's May 2, 2011 earnings announcement and United Rentals'December 16, 2011 announcement of its acquisition of RSC Holdings, according to prosecutors.

Shaw agreed to pay around $1.3 million in restitution and will continue to cooperate with the government's investigation as part of his plea.

London is scheduled to appear in federal court on Friday, though that will likely be pushed back, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.

Shaw, who pleaded guilty on May 20, has a sentencing hearing on September 16.

Manuel Goncalves, a spokesman for KPMG, did not immediately return requests for comment.

(Reporting by Bernard Vaughan in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

BREAKTHROUGH: A new genetic test to gauge the aggressiveness of prostate cancer may help men decide whether they need to treat their cancer right away or can safely monitor it.

PROVIDING ANSWERS: Doctors say such tests can prevent overtreatment, a major problem in cancer care. Prostate tumors usually grow so slowly they will never threaten a man's life, but some prove fatal and there is no reliable way now to tell which ones will.

ABOUT THE TEST: Genomic Health developed the $3,820 test and says it can save money by avoiding unnecessary treatment. Another test for assessing prostate cancer risk that came out last summer Prolaris by Myriad Genetics costs $3,400.

* Could be on Galaxy roster for Sunday's home game (Adds quotes and details)

May 25 (Reuters) - Former U.S. soccer international Robbie Rogers has joined Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy, the team said on Saturday, making him the latest openly gay male athlete in an American professional team sport.

Rogers, who came out in February on the same day he retired from the game, will be on the Galaxy's roster for Sunday's home match against the Seattle Sounders if his international transfer certificate arrives in time.

"I was afraid to put myself back in a situation where I felt like I was kind of an outcast I guess, or just different from people," Rogers told a news conference at the Galaxy's Home Depot Center.

"But after this whole process I've realised that everyone is a bit different, everyone has their issues."

The announcement by the Galaxy comes less than a month after National Basketball Association veteran Jason Collins became the first active athlete from the four major U.S. men's professional sports leagues to come out publicly as gay.

Collins, however, is a free agent and has not played since his announcement after the 2012-13 NBA regular season.

Rogers said the watershed announcement by Collins, who received widespread support, including a phone call from President Barack Obama, did not influence his decision to end his brief retirement.

"Not for me," said Rogers, who was part of the U.S. team at the Beijing Olympics and narrowly missed out on a place in the U.S. World Cup squad in 2010.

"For me it was a decision that I had to make on my own."

Rogers, a 26-year-old winger who had spells in England with Leeds United and Stevenage after first making his name in MLS with the Columbus Crew, had been training with the Galaxy for the past three weeks.

He most recently played for the United States in 2011 but struggled following a move to English second tier club Leeds in January 2012, being loaned out to third tier Stevenage before being released by Leeds earlier this year.

The Galaxy signed Rogers to a multi-year contract after acquiring the right of first refusal for him from the Chicago Fire in exchange for midfielder Mike Magee.

Rogers enjoyed a breakout season in 2008 when he scored six goals, earning all-star honors and helping the Crew win their first MLS Cup championship.

"We've been searching for the last year or two for a player that has the skills to be a flank player, play wide, add a little speed to our club," said Galaxy coach Bruce Arena.

"He offers qualities that we've been looking for so we're hopeful that in time Robbie is going to demonstrate the kind of qualities he has previously in this league." (Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Ken Ferris)

VIRGINIA WATER, England, May 22 (Reuters) - Ernie Els would not have won last year's British Open without the aid of a belly putter, the South African four-times major champions said on Wednesday.

Golf's governing bodies announced on Tuesday a ban on the anchoring of putters from 2016 and Els believes he would have had little chance of lifting the Claret Jug if he been forced to use a more conventional approach on the greens at Lytham last July.

"I was in such a state on the greens then that I don't think I could have won the Open with a short putter," the 43-year-old told reporters on the eve of the European Tour's flagship event, the PGA Championship at Wentworth.

"It was a psychological thing for me and even with the long putter I didn't putt that great - I was probably in the bottom 10 of the putting stats at Lytham.

"But I'm in a much better place now," said Els. "I feel I can get back to working with the short putter again in the future."

Els has begun the process of re-adapting to the shorter putter.

"I've already used it at a tournament in Asia in March," he explained. "It wasn't as much of a pressure tournament as the PGA or a major but I felt okay with it.

"I've been practising with it and it feels great but you have to take it out on the course. There are obviously going to be more eyes watching us now.

"I probably won't put the short one in the bag until after the major season this year, then at the end of the year I'll start playing a lot more tournaments with it."

ANCHORED PUTTER

Four of the last six majors have been won by players using an anchored putter and Els believes the club manufacturers will react to the ban from the Royal and Ancient and the United States Golf Association by creating new devices to use on the greens.

"I think there will be another design of putter coming and the players these days are so good and spend so much time practising that they will get used to playing a different way," he said.

"Luckily for me, if I'm being selfish, I've won 60-odd tournaments and only one was with a belly putter but it is going to take time for the rest of the guys to get back into competitive form with a different type of method."

Els, who also won the 2002 British Open and the U.S. Open in 1994 and 1997, believes some players will take legal advice over the anchoring ban.

"I think you're going to have guys going that way," he said. "This is a real issue for some players...they are probably going to take some action."

Els also believes he could continue with some form of long putter without breaking the new rule.

"Callaways built me a longer putter with a lot of weight in the handle," he said. "You can still use it fairly close to how the anchoring works but not quite." (Editing by Ed Osmond)

That's an idea to set tongues wagging at the Cannes Film Festival, and it's the distinct impression left by Israeli director Ari Folman's head-spinning part-animated feature "The Congress."

Fittingly, Cannes provided the inspiration for the director's dystopian vision of the entertainment business, which stars actress Robin Wright as, well, actress Robin Wright a 40something performer whose career is on the slide.

Folman conceived the kernel of the film when he came to the festival in 2008 with "Waltz With Bashir," his Academy Award-nominated animated film about his experiences as a young Israeli soldier in Lebanon in the 1980s.

The director said he was walking through the bustling movie marketplace at Cannes when he saw an elderly woman.

"And my sales agent asked me, do you recognize this lady? And I said no," Folman said. "And he told me her name and I was shocked, because she was this goddess American actress from the 70s. She was in her 70s, and no one recognized her. And this is Mecca for cinema, this place!

"And I thought, she's got in front of her, everywhere, the image of her young, stolen forever in the movies. And here she is and she has to live with her image forever young, but she's getting old."

Folman diplomatically declined to name the actress. But he said the episode gave him a way to realize a long-held dream of adapting "The Futurological Congress," a satirical sci-fi novel by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem in which pharmaceutical overlords keep the population hooked on hallucinogenic drugs.

In the movie, Wright agrees to become a "scanned actor," a digital avatar owned by her studio. The digital Wright can be endlessly, agelessly used in new movies the studio makes her "Agent Robin" in a sci-fi action series while the flesh-and-blood person grows old in obscurity.

The film's live-action first half is an entertainingly bleak depiction of Hollywood, with an on-the-ropes Wright berated by her agent (a delicious Harvey Keitel) and bullied by her studio boss (a malevolent Danny Huston).

Wright has been called brave for taking on issues of aging and image so directly. But Folman said he didn't see it that way when he offered the role to the actress after sitting across from her at an awards ceremony and thinking she looked sad.

"I think it's a great role," he said. "She is Robin Wright, she is Agent Robin in the movie, she's an animated character, she's an old Robin at the very end, she sings two songs it's a great role.

"Although Harvey Keitel told me one day on the set, 'Man, she is so brave. You could have offered me the world, I would never do what she does in this movie.'"

Wright has said she doesn't think she is playing herself, even though she and her screen character share a name and many biographical details, including roles in "The Princess Bride" and "Forrest Gump."

Once Wright has been digitally scanned, the movie switches to animation as the character visits a conference at a luxury hotel where her films screen endlessly and she goes unrecognized and learns of a sinister plot to make the power of celebrity even more addictive.

The movie's audacious shifts of tone, and its swirling, psychedelically tinged animation, have elicited diverse reactions at Cannes, where "The Congress" opened the Director's Fortnight competition.

Many saw it as original but uneven. It's inarguably a strikingly original work by a director who is both amused and despairing about the modern entertainment business.

Folman, a genial, bearded 50-year-old sporting a gold medallion and an earring, says he fears the sort of movies that inspired him the director-driven American cinema of the 1970s is dying, soon to be found only in cinema museums.

And don't get him started on 3-D, CGI and the other digital tricks that, Folman thinks, are ruining movies.

"The role of the director is completely different (today)," he said. "Until recently the urgency on the set to make a movie was huge. Today, it's only part of the job, because you can fix everything afterwards. The set is blue screens, and then you build it and you can fix it. And sometimes it's for the good, but I can give you examples where it's terrible.

"My favorite sci-fi movie ever is 'Blade Runner.' This film was done with hand-made crafts."

For the movie, director Ridley Scott "built the sets it's wood and paper and plastic and aluminum. I see this movie every few months on a big screen at home and it will live forever.

"Same guy did 'Prometheus' last year. Who saw it?"

Folman is keeping the flame burning for an older form of cinema but it's a slow and laborious process. "The Congress" took five years to make, and slightly under an hour of animation required two years of work by animators in nine countries.

"I try not to look at myself as this nostalgic (person)," Folman added, pausing a second before adding: "But."

"I don't say we will have scanned actors. I think the human side will win. I am a true believer in that.

"But if I look at my kids and the way they use everything iPads and electronics and everything I have to be honest with myself and say, if my kids, in 15 years' time, see a movie with scanned characters, they won't give a damn."

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

After four years of development, Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One entertainment console and touted it as an all-in-one solution for playing games, watching TV and doing everything in between. Microsoft wants the Xbox One to be central to your living room and packed the new Xbox with such features as the ability to change TV channels through voice commands.

Although the device won't go on sale until later this year, at a price that hasn't been disclosed yet, Microsoft invited attendees of Tuesday's announcement event to take a closer look at the system.

Based on limited time with the device, the Xbox One feels like an improvement over its predecessor. But it fails to include features some fans have demanded, including the ability to play games bought for the existing Xbox 360 system.

Of course, many particulars about the Xbox One could change between now and when it's released. The specific date hasn't been revealed. More details are expected at the E3 video game conference in Los Angeles next month.

For now, the system looks to be a thoughtful piece of technology, but there's still a lot that isn't known.

DESIGN: With contrasting matte and gloss finishes, the Xbox One is the slickest video game console so far, although we don't yet know what Sony's upcoming PlayStation 4 will look like. (Nintendo's Wii U came out in November and is the only one of the three new consoles already available for purchase, though sales have fallen short of the company's forecasts.) The Xbox's outer shell, which Microsoft calls "liquid black," features vented flourishes and all the inputs and outputs one might need, including multiple USB ports and HDMI pass-through.

KINECT: The new version of the Xbox's camera-based Kinect system comes with better motion and voice detection, including the ability to recognize faces, tell if you're smiling or talking and gauge your heart rate. It appears as sexy as the Xbox console, but has been overhauled under the hood. It's three times more sensitive and has a larger, 60-degree field of view. In a demo, the doodad's high-definition camera easily displayed crystal-clear 1080p video and could detect up to seven people, though it lagged as more folks stood in front of it. The basic motion detection appears vastly improved, but the voice detection feature wasn't made available to try out, adding to the list of unknowns.

PERFORMANCE: The system seems to work harmoniously together. For example, by combining the Kinect's face detection ability with the machine's wireless controllers, it recognized almost magically when users swapped controllers.

CONTROLLER: The new controller's layout is mostly unchanged, but the bulky battery bump is gone from the back. The smoother Xbox One controller boasts a new directional pad and vibrating trigger buttons. The triggers pulsated in tandem with such imagery as a character's heart beating and a car revving up during a demo with a prototype controller.

REQUIREMENTS: Luckily, the Xbox One won't require a constant connection to the Internet, but there's a possibility that some of the key features wouldn't work as well or at all. The Kinect system is required and will come with the machine, rather than sold separately as has been the case with the Xbox 360. The Xbox One also will feature privacy settings so it doesn't feel like the Kinect's camera is always watching you.

LIMITATIONS: Xbox 360 games won't work on the Xbox One because the underlying technology is different, according to Microsoft. Microsoft was vague about how the Xbox One will handle previously played games bought from other gamers, though it confirmed used games will work somehow. There had been talk that Microsoft might restrict used games on the new machine.

GAMES: What games? Despite the fact that such titles as "Call of Duty: Ghosts," ''FIFA 14" and "Forza Motorsport 5" were teased during Tuesday's flashy presentation, actual games weren't available to try out afterward. Microsoft said it plans to focus on Xbox One titles in three weeks at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the gaming industry's annual convention in Los Angeles.

The Xbox One shows promise with a sleek shell and a new Kinect detector that seems to perform fine at least if you don't try to confuse it with too many people at once. But with a lack of games and lingering questions about what it can do without an Internet connection, there are too many questions about the Xbox One, even after experiencing not just hearing what Microsoft has planned. At this point, it's too early to say whether Microsoft or Sony is leading in the latest round of the console wars. They'll have to duke it out at E3.

___

Online:

http://www.xbox.com

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang