WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After showing a lack of direction throughout much of the session, stocks moved to the downside in the latter part of the trading day on Wednesday.
The major averages all moved lower late in the day partly offsetting the strong gains posted in the previous session.
The Dow declined 244.95 points or 0.6 percent to 42,098.70, the Nasdaq fell 98.23 points or 0.5 percent to 19,100.94 and the S&P 500 slid 32.99 points or 0.6 percent to 5,888.55.
The choppy trading seen for most of the day came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of earnings news from AI darling and market leader Nvidia (NVDA).
Shares of Nvidia, which is scheduled to release its fiscal first quarter results after the close of today's trading, decreased by 0.5 percent on the day.
Lingering uncertainty about President Donald Trump's trade policies may also have kept some traders on the sidelines following recent volatility.
Trump's threat to impose 50 percent tariffs on imports from the European Union triggered a steep drop by stocks last Friday only for his decision to delay the proposed tariffs to spark the rally on Tuesday.
Housing stocks turned in some of the market's worst performances on the day, dragging the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index down by 2.4 percent.
Considerable weakness also emerged among utilities stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent loss posted by the Dow Jones Utility Average.
Steel, oil producer and transportation stocks also moved to the downside, while gold stocks moved higher despite a modest decrease by the price of the precious metal.
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index and China's Shanghai Composite Index closed just below the unchanged line, while South Korea's Kospi surged by 1.3 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slid by 0.8 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.6 percent and the French CAC 40 Index decreased by 0.5 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries gave back ground after moving notably higher over the past few sessions. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, climbed 4.3 basis points at 4.477 percent.
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