US close: Stocks mostly lower as Apple slides, oil declines

US stocks ended mostly lower on Wednesday as oil prices weakened and amid heavy losses for technology giant Apple.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.2%, but the S&P 500 closed off 0.2% and the Nasdaq fell 0.6%.

Meanwhile, oil prices settled lower as doubts over OPEC’s proposed production cut overshadowed a surprise drop in US crude inventories. Data from the US Energy Information Administration showed US crude stockpiles declined by 553,000 barrels last week, versus expectations of a 1.7m barrel build.

Brent crude dropped 1.7% to $49.95 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate was down 1.5% to $49.22.

Apple declined after its fourth-quarter results late on Tuesday showed net income declined 19% to $9bn, on revenue of $46.9bn, down 9%. Although income was a little better than expected, revenue fell short of analysts’ forecasts.

CMC Markets said: "Positive earnings and oil news unable to keep US markets from declining. It’s been another difficult day for US markets which increasingly look under distribution and vulnerable. Although better than expected results from Boeing and Mondelez helped their stocks to gain 3-4% on the day, broader indices declined."

Coca-Cola slipped as the beverage maker said quarterly revenue fell 7% compared to last year to $10.6bn, but beat expectations of $10.5bn.

Cable operator Comcast fell as it said net income rose 12% to $2.24bn, or 92 cents a share, in line with expectations, while revenues increased 14% to $21.3bn thanks to the Rio Olympics and the presidential election.

On the upside, aircraft maker Boeing rallied as it posted an increase in third-quarter profit and lifted its projection for full-year commercial deliveries.

Oreo maker Mondelez International was a high riser as it said its third quarter profit beat expectations, with earnings of 52 cents per share compared to forecasts of 43 cents. Net revenue fell 6.6% to $6.4bn versus expectations of $6.45bn.

On the data front, Markit’s seasonally-adjusted flash composite PMI output index rose to 54.9 in October, from 52.3 in September and above the 50.0 no-change value for the eighth month running, which was the sharpest expansion of private sector output since November 2015.

The Commerce Department reported that wholesale inventories for September rose 0.2% to $590.7bn, while the international trade deficit fell to $56.1bn from $59.1bn from August.

Data for new home sales for September revealed a 3.1% jump from August to a seasonally adjusted rate of 593,000. Economists had expected 600,000.