Wall Street’s rally runs out of gas, leaving indexes lower

NEW YORK • A wobbly day of trading on Wall Street ended with stocks slightly lower Wednesday as a gangbuster two-day rally ran out of gas.

Stock indexes had been in the red much of the day before briefly shifting into the green following a late-afternoon burst of buying. The S&P 500 ended 0.2% lower after having veered between a low of 1.8% and a high of 0.4%. The benchmark index was coming off its best two-day rally since the spring of 2020.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.2%. The Russell 2000 index of small company stock closed 0.7% lower.

Bond yields rose broadly. Oil prices also rose after the OPEC+ cartel ordered production cuts.

The broader market is still bruised from its stumble in September, but investors have been hoping that signs of a softening economy may convince central banks to temper their aggressive interest rate hikes. Analysts have said such hopes may be premature.

“I’m not surprised with short-term traders looking to take profits now and then decide later whether this is the beginning of a lasting bear market bounce or even the beginning of a new bull market,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA.

The S&P 500 dropped 7.65 points to 3,783.28. The Dow slipped 42.45 points to close at 30,273.87. The Nasdaq slid 27.77 points to 11,148.64. The Russell 2000 fell 13.07 points to 1,762.69.

Financial companies and utilities were among the sectors that weighed down the market. Jpmorgan Chase fell 1.3% and Duke Energy dropped 3.2%.

Technology companies and health care stocks rose. Qualcomm gained 2.1% and Illumina climbed 6.6%.

Energy stocks gained ground as U.S. crude oil prices rose 1.4%. Exxon Mobil rose 4%.