Wall Street fell on Wednesday as losses at several banks and big technology companies outweighed gains elsewhere, even though more stocks rose than fell overall.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.5% for its second straight loss after it had set an all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 42 points, or 0.1%, while the Nasdaq composite lost 1%.
Bank stocks helped pull the indexes lower. Wells Fargo fell 4.6% after reporting weaker profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected, with analysts citing lower trading fees and other miscellaneous items. Bank of America slid 3.8% after posting stronger profit than analysts expected, with some consternation about the size of its upcoming expenses. Citigroup fell 3.3% following its profit report during a turnaround led by Chair and CEO Jane Fraser.
Tech and other high-profile decliners also weighed on the market. Biogen sank 5% after saying it expects a hit to its profit for the fourth quarter of 2025 due to research and development expenses and other costs it acquired. Nvidia fell 1.4%, and Broadcom dropped 4.2%.
Even with the broad pullback, the strongest support for the S&P 500 came from energy. Exxon Mobil rose 2.9% and Chevron climbed 2.1% as benchmark U.S. oil rose 1.4% to settle at $62.02. Smaller-company stocks fared better than the rest of the market, with the Russell 2000 index rising 0.7%. The day’s closing figures showed the S&P 500 fell 37.14 points to 6,926.60, the Dow fell 42.36 points to 49,149.63, and the Nasdaq composite lost 238.12 points to 23,471.75.
Analysts said the market’s near-term focus was on whether companies can deliver enough growth to match stock prices that have already risen sharply in recent years. Companies across industries, the report said, face pressure to report strong profit growth to justify valuation levels, and analysts were looking for earnings per share for the final three months of 2025 that are roughly 8% higher than a year earlier, according to FactSet.
Oil prices have risen recently after protests swept Iran, the report said. Those protests could lead to disruptions in production and squeeze crude supplies, supporting energy stocks even as other sectors struggled. Brent crude rose 1.6% and briefly pushed its gain for the year so far to nearly 10%, before prices for both Brent and U.S. oil fell back later in the afternoon.
In bonds and broader economic data, Treasury yields sank as investors sought safer assets. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.14% from 4.18% late Tuesday, while reports on U.S. economic activity came in mixed. One report said shoppers spent more at U.S. retailers in November than economists expected, while another said prices rose modestly at the U.S. wholesale level in November; separate data on Tuesday said consumer inflation was close to economists’ expectations last month, though it still remained above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
Taken together, the reports did not significantly change Wall Street expectations for the Federal Reserve’s path for interest rates. The report said CME Group projected that the Fed will cut its main interest rate at least twice this year, likely beginning around June. In international markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rallied 1.5% to another record amid expectations that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi may call general elections soon. Indexes elsewhere were mixed, with stocks rising 0.6% in Hong Kong but falling 0.3% in Shanghai after a report showed China’s trade surplus surged 20% in 2025 to a record despite President Donald Trump’s tariffs.