Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE: CSC) and General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) were the only companies on the index to record gains.
Losses in the energy sector coupled with continued declines in oil prices continued to help drag U.S. stocks and data that showed a decline in factory orders during November and a slow expansion of service industries and December drove investor activity, according to Bloomberg.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 130.01 points to 17, 371.64, the S&P 500 composite index slid 17.97 points to 2, 002.61 and the NASDAQ composite index declined 59.84 points to 4, 592.74.
The Executive Mosaic GovCon Index is a composite index that tracks 30 of the largest publicly-traded Government Contracting (GovCon) firms.