By Avantika Chilkoti and Michael Wursthorn 

U.S. stocks fell Tuesday, giving major indexes their first decline in five trading sessions, as concerns over global growth resurfaced.

Stocks opened the holiday-shortened week on shaky footing after the International Monetary Fund reduced its forecast for global economic growth in 2019, forcing investors to again confront the possibility that some major economies around the world are weakening faster than expected, including China and Europe.

The report, which coincided with new data showing the Chinese economy grew at the slowest annual pace since 1990, sparked a broad selloff that halted a four-day run of gains for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite.

"It's not good for markets and it's not good for the rest of the world because the supply chains, the links to other countries, are way too important to ignore," Anna Stupnytska, global economist at Fidelity International, said of the slowdown in China.

The broad S&P 500 fell 1.4%, on pace for its biggest percentage decline since Jan. 3, while the Dow industrials shed 299 points, or 1.2%, to 24407. The Nasdaq Composite declined 1.9%.

Earlier, mixed earnings reports from Johnson & Johnson and Stanley Black & Decker added to Tuesday's weak trading, further heightening investor's growth fears.

Shares of Johnson & Johnson fell 2.4% after the company said litigation costs tied to its signature baby powder nearly doubled in the fourth quarter.

Stanley Black & Decker, meanwhile, shed 15% after the tool maker said it was under pressure from higher costs, currency headwinds and trade tariffs.

Also weighing on major indexes were shares of Arconic. The company fell 17% after saying it won't pursue a sale of itself. The Wall Street Journal previously reported Arconic was in talks to sell itself to private-equity firm Apollo Global Management, but Chairman John Plant said Tuesday that it didn't receive a proposal that would be in the interest of shareholders.

The lackluster earnings, along with weakening economic forecasts, have interrupted the stock market's rebound from a punishing year-end selloff.

The broad S&P 500 has risen 4.9% this year following its worst December since 1931, as investors took earlier data portraying a healthy labor market and signals that the Federal Reserve will be flexible with monetary policy as cues for optimism.

But anything suggesting global growth is weakening faster than expected has been spooking investors, said analysts, especially as they continue to worry about the ramifications of the U.S.'s continuing trade spat with China, the Fed's easing of monetary policy and a government shutdown that started more than a month earlier.

Investors mostly remain skeptical, according to some measures of sentiment. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, for example, said in a recent report that 25-day put/call ratios remain elevated, suggesting investors aren't fully convinced that worst of the recent selloff is over.

Meanwhile, a survey of investor sentiment showed investors are more bearish than usual, according to the American Association of Individual Investors' weekly survey.

"The traditional warning signs for recession are not evident today. It could still be years away," wrote Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at the Leuthold Group, wrote in a note. "However, it is not too early for investors to begin considering whether the next recession could bring unexpected risks."

Elsewhere, the Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.4%, its second consecutive decline, while stocks in Asia mostly fell. Japan's Nikkei shed 0.5%, while the Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.2% and 0.7%, respectively.

Write to Avantika Chilkoti at Avantika.Chilkoti@wsj.com and Michael Wursthorn at Michael.Wursthorn@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 22, 2019 16:18 ET (21:18 GMT)