U.S. stocks closed lower on Wednesday after a late-afternoon slide erased modest gains made earlier in the day.
The decline added to the market’s losses from the day before and came as crude oil prices fell and investors focused primarily on the latest wave of companies reporting quarterly financial results.
Yahoo slumped 5 percent after reporting a sharp drop in a closely watched measure of revenue, while Chipotle Mexican Grill tumbled 5.7 percent after the restaurant chain’s results fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.
Not all the earnings news was bad. Investors bid up shares in General Motors, which climbed 5.8 percent, and Biogen, which rose 4 percent, among others.
Only about a quarter of the companies slated to report their results have done so.
“As we get a fuller picture of how (third-quarter) earnings are going to wind up shaking out, that will give people more of a comfort level in terms of the directional cues in the market,” said Mike Ryan, chief investment strategist at UBS Wealth Management Americas.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 48.50 points, or 0.3 percent, to 17,168.61. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 11.83 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,018.94. The Nasdaq composite slid 40.85 points, or 0.8 percent, to 4,840.12.
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