The Dow Jones Industrials finished 79 points lower to 13,968; the S&P500 lost 7 to 1,540, and the Nasdaq lost 18 points to finish at 2,729.
In company news, after propping up the market recently, tech stocks dragged on the markets Wednesday. One of the markets biggest losers was Intel. Shares dropped 2.16% to $25.81 after Morgan Stanley initiated coverage of the chip maker with an "underweight" rating and a price target of $22, according to an industry website, theflyonthewall.com. Morgan Stanley reportedly believes a price war in the chip sector is brewing.
In related earnings news, Micron Technology shares dropped 8.91% to $10.74 after the memory chip maker posted a quarterly loss of $158 million, hit by lower prices for chips used in digital cameras, music players and PCs. The company also said it expects industry-wide prices for chips to decline between 10 and 25 per cent.
Shares in General Motors were up 1.19% to $37.49 on Wednesday. GM sales were up 4 per cent while rival Ford sales slipped 18 per cent. Toyota sales also dipped 1 per cent. Overall US September auto sales steadied, bucking Wall Street expectations for a decline because of the housing downturn and tighter credit.
And shares in Las Vegas Sands fell 11.78% to $127.53 because of signs of disappointing growth in Chinese gambling haven Macau. Morgan Stanley said preliminary September gaming revenue indicated 55 per cent growth, below the 75 per cent forecast. Las Vegas Sands had risen 54 per cent this year before Wednesday's fall that wiped out $6 billion of the company's market value. Wynn Resorts was also down on the news.
Turning to the best and worst performers in the Nasdaq Top 100. Echostar Communications topped the list. Shares were up 4.64% to $48.94. Fiserv and Genzyme round out the top three.
Wynn Resorts came in as the worst performer, falling by 9.91% to $149.40 Nvidia and Applied Materials also failed to perform.
