US close: Stocks close lower as State of the Union offers little on Trump's economic agenda

US stocks closed lower on Wednesday as Donald Trump's State of the Union address overnight snapped a 5-day winning streak for the S&P 500 and left investors wanting more.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.08% weaker at 25,390.30, while the S&P 500 closed 0.22% lower at 2,731.61 and the Nasdaq lost 0.36% at 7,375.28.

The Dow closed 21 points lower as investors mulled over Trump's speech on Tuesday, which offered very little information regarding his economic agenda and Oanda analyst Craig Erlam said "wasn't much of a market mover, more a reminder of the president's priorities and determination to get various initiatives over the line".

"The border wall and trade talks with China were the primary focus for investors and in both cases, nothing new was learned. Trump continues to resist the temptation to invoke emergency powers for now which means another government shutdown on 15th of this month remains a possibility."

Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC on Wednesday that he and US trade representative Robert Lighthizer will travel to Beijing next week to continue negotiations over the continuing trade dispute between the two nations.

The USD reversed some earlier gains to end the session just 0.01% weaker against the GBP at 0.7733.

In corporate news, shares in Snapchat parent Snap surged 22.02% during the session on better-than-expected earnings late on Tuesday.

Shares in health insurer Humana were 0.48% weaker after the company posted a 7.4% jump in fourth-quarter revenue, while Boston Scientific closed 2.78% after saying it swung to a profit in the fourth quarter.

Pharmaceuticals group Eli Lilly was 0.95% lower at the end of trading even as its fourth-quarter revenue beat expectations as earnings were a miss and the company cut its 2019 outlook.

Elsewhere, Take-Two Interactive Software was 13.76% weaker after the release of its fourth-quarter numbers and Spotify closed 2.83% weaker despite posting its first-ever operating profit.

On the data front, America's shortfall in trade with the rest of the world narrowed sharply in November, on the heels of a large drop in purchases from overseas.

The US trade deficit on goods and services with the rest of the world declined at a pace of 11.5% month-on-month to reach $49.3bn, according to the Department of Commerce.

Economists had forecast only a dip in the overall deficit to $54.0bn.

Total imports were especially weak, falling by 2.9% over the month to $259.2bn, while exports slipped by 0.6% to $209.9bn.

Purchases of goods from overseas weakened the most, declining by $7.9bn to $211.9bn, led by a $2.3bn fall in imports of cell phones and other household goods, while those of industrial supplies and materials - which include crude and fuel oil - decreased by $3.4bn.

On the export side of the equation, sales of civilian aircraft were a bright spot, increasing by $1.0bn.

Overall, the goods deficit shrank by $6.7bn to $71.6bn while the services surplus was $0.3bn smaller at $22.3bn.

Nevertheless, year-to-date the total trade deficit was 10.4% or $51.9bn wider than over the same period of 2017.