U.S. stocks ended Wednesday’s choppy session lower as investors were unable to shrug off worries over the economy.
A weaker-than-expected ADP jobs report and the ISM report on the services side of the economy compounded fears that the U.S. recovery is still vulnerable, weighing on sentiment. A widespread notion that markets may have further to fall also kept indexes from building on the previous day’s modest gains.
Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser’s comments urging to speed up the tapering reminded investors that quantitative easing is unlikely to come to aid the markets in 2014.
The S&P 500 closed down 3.56 points, or 0.2% at 1,751.64 and is 5.2% below its peak reached on Jan 15.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average , which dropped more than 100 points at session lows, closed 5 points lower at 15,440.29.
The Nasdaq Composite ended the day 19.97 points, or 0.5%, lower at 4,011.55.
Source: MarketWatch
