Investing.com – Wall Street moved slightly lower on Wednesday , as investors remained on edge ahead of the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole meeting later this week and digested some downbeat data and earnings, while oil tumbled on bearish crude inventories.
At 15:48GMT, or 11:48AM ET, the Dow 30 fell 46 points, or 0.25%, the S&P 500 lost 5 points, or 0.23%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded down 8 points, or 0.15%.
While market participants were busy taking positions ahead of Federal Reserve Chief Janet Yellen’s speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium on Friday and whether the central bank chief could signal rate hike timing, they evaluated some worse than expected data on the U.S. housing market.
U.S. existing home sales fell more than forecast in July, while the increase in housing prices in June came in under consensus.
The company earnings front also provided some grim news, with Express (NYSE:EXPR) crashing more than 20% after the apparel maker slashed sales and profit forecasts.
Shares of La-Z-Boy (NYSE:LZB) plunged almost 13% ahead of the opening bell after the furniture maker’s quarterly earnings and sales missed expectations.
Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) slumped almost 4% after the financial management solutions company provided a weak outlook for the current quarter.
HP (NYSE:HPQ) and Guess? (NYSE:GES) were set to release earnings after the market close.
In deal news, Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) agreed to purchase part of AstraZeneca's (NYSE:AZN) antibiotics business for up to $1.575 billion plus royalties.
Meanwhile, oil prices were under heavy selling pressure in North American trade on Wednesday, after data showed that both oil and gasoline supplies in the U.S. rose last week.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude oil inventories rose by 2.5 million barrels in the week ended August 19. Market analysts' expected a crude-stock drop of 0.5 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a supply gain of 4.5 million barrels.
The report also showed that gasoline inventories rose by 36,000 barrels, disappointing expectations for a 1.1-million-barrel decline.
U.S. crude futures tumbled 3.26% to $46.535 by 15:50GMT, or 11:50AM ET, while Brent oil fell 2.22% to $48.85.