Stocks gave up early gains and closed lower Wednesday, adding to Wall Street's losses from a day earlier. The S&P 500 fell 0.7% after spending the morning swaying between small gains and losses. Companies that rely on consumer spending, banks, and technology and communication stocks bore the brunt of the selling, the AP reports. The S&P 500 fell 23.26 points to 3,488.67. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 165.81 points, or 0.6%, to 28,514. The pullback knocked the Dow back into the red for the year. The Nasdaq composite slid 95.17 points, or 0.8%, to 11,768.73. At one point it had been up 0.6%.
The decline came as talks between Democrats and Republicans in Washington over another economic stimulus package continued to drag on, dimming investors' hopes for a deal that can deliver more aid for the US economy in the near term. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke by phone again Wednesday morning but didn’t reach an agreement, Pelosi aide Drew Hammill said. Mnuchin said at a conference that it would be "difficult" to get a deal done before the presidential election next month. "The time for being able to pull this off is now coming to a close," says Rod von Lipsey, managing director at UBS Private Wealth Management. "The market has been listless because it understands that it’s probably not going to happen."
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