By Caroline Valetkevitch
(Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended more than 1 percent lower on Wednesday after rallying the day before, led by declines in shares of Apple and energy companies, which fell with oil prices.
Shares of Apple (O:AAPL) ended down 1.9 percent at $110.15 in heavy trading, erasing gains as it launched new products.
The company announced a new version of the Apple TV with an app store and voice-controlled remote control. Some analysts said investors sold Apple shares because expectations were so high ahead of the event.
Among Apple's suppliers, Skyworks Solutions (O:SWKS) was down 1.5 percent at $86.42, Avago Technologies (O:AVGO) was down 1.5 percent at $127.17, while U.S.-traded shares of STMicroelectronics NV (N:STM) fell 6 percent to $7.04.
Energy <.SPNY> led declines among S&P 500 sectors, falling 1.9 percent as U.S. oil prices (CLc1) settled down 3.9 percent. Chevron (N:CVX) was down 2.5 percent at $74.92.
The volatile session reversed early gains of as much as 1 percent. Indexes had rallied more than 2 percent on Tuesday.
"We had a nice rally yesterday based on an oversold position. There really wasn't anything to create a follow-through, so the buying just kind of ran out of steam," said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T (NYSE:BBT) Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.
"Investors are still looking for policy developments out of China, and also wary of what might come out of the Fed next week."
The Dow Jones industrial average (DJI) fell 239.11 points, or 1.45 percent, to 16,253.57, the S&P 500 (SPX) lost 27.37 points, or 1.39 percent, to 1,942.04 and the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) dropped 55.40 points, or 1.15 percent, to 4,756.53.
U.S. job openings surged in July, Labor Department data showed, suggesting strength in the economy ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate meeting next week.
China said it will strengthen fiscal policy, boost infrastructure spending and speed up tax reform to reenergize growth.
Global financial markets have been rattled in recent weeks by fears that China's slowdown could drag on already sluggish global growth, prompting some investors to bet that the U.S. central bank will delay a rate hike until the end of the year.
Barnes & Noble (N:BKS) fell 27.6 percent to $11.80. The largest U.S. bookstore chain reported a fall in sales for the fifth consecutive quarter.
Netflix (O:NFLX), which was up 4.5 percent at $99.18, broke a seven-day losing streak and was among the biggest boosts to the S&P 500.
NYSE declining issues outnumbered advancers 2,301 to 744, for a 3.09-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,949 issues fell and 865 advanced, for a 2.25-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.
The S&P 500 posted four new 52-week highs and three lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 43 new highs and 51 lows.
About 7.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, below the 7.4 billion daily average for the month to date, according to data from BATS Global Markets.