U.S. stocks veered broadly lower in afternoon trading Wednesday, with materials and real estate companies leading the slide. The losses wiped out the gains from the day before, when the Nasdaq composite index closed at a record high. Trading was quiet in a light week of economic and company news before the New Year's Day holiday weekend.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 79 points, or 0.4 percent, to 19,865 as of 12:51 p.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 15 points, or 0.7 percent, to 2,253. The Nasdaq slid 42 points, or 0.8 percent, to 5,444.
THE QUOTE: "This is just a little bit of back-and-forth, very thin trading action," said Scott Wren, senior global equity strategist, Wells Fargo Investment Institute. "Nothing really new to trade on."
SHORT THRIFT: Nvidia slumped 4.8 percent after short seller Citron Research said it expects the chipmaker's shares, which have tripled in value this year, to fall substantially. The stock was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500 index, sliding $5.60 to $111.72.
POSION PILL: Fred's dropped 4.2 percent on a published report indicating that the regional drugstore chain has adopted a "poison pill" to discourage an activist investor from interfering with the company's plan to buy 865 Rite Aid stores. Rite Aid has to sell the stores in order to appease anti-trust regulators and close its $9.4 billion buyout deal with Walgreens Boots Alliance. Shares in Fred's fell 83 cents to $18.80.
NOT FINE: Qualcomm slipped 1.8 percent after antitrust regulators in South Korea fined the company $865 million, claiming the chipmaker engaged in unfair sales practices, including refusing to let competitors license patents that are essential for chipmaking. The stock lost $1.19 to $66.06.
DRILLED OUT: Shares in oil and natural gas exploration companies were down. Chesapeake Energy lost 34 cents, or 4.5 percent, to $7.25. Murphy Oil shed 83 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $31.98. Southwestern Energy slid 22 cents, or 2 percent, to $10.80.
BANKS BOUNCE: Several banks holding on to small gains. Bank of New York Mellon rose 31 cents to $48.04. Goldman Sachs Group added $1.12 to $242.68.
MARKETS OVERSEAS: In Europe, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 each ended essentially flat. Britain's FTSE 100 posted a record-high close of 7,106.08, a gain of 0.5 percent. Earlier, in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 was flat. Australia's S&P ASX 200 gained 1 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.8 percent. South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.9 percent.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude was up 26 cents at $54.16 a barrel in New York. It rose 88 cents on Tuesday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, was up 14 cents at $56.97 a barrel in London. It gained 93 cents the day before.
BONDS AND CURRENCIES: Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.55 percent from 2.56 percent late Tuesday. In currency trading, the dollar continued to rise. It was trading at 117.63 yen, up from 117.45 on Tuesday. The euro fell to $1.0381 from $1.0458.