Wall Street Slides On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - U.S. stocks spent all of Wednesday under water, thanks to a rebound in crude oil prices that followed comments a day earlier from U.S. President Donald Trump.

The major averages opened in the red on Wednesday and continued to trend lower throughout the session, ending at daily lows.

The Dow sank 352.10 points or 0.68 percent to finish at 51,511.59, while the NASDAQ dropped 308.24 points or 1.13 percent to close at 26,936.04 and the S&P 500 lost 58.61 points or 0.75 percent to end at 7,706.03.

Speaking before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump said that a deal with Iran may be possible after the midterm elections but said that he may instead just decide to "annihilate the Islamic Republic." He also spoke of setting up a "large military presence" on Greenland.

Stocks slumped in reaction and the losses accelerated on Wednesday when oil prices rebounded, stoking inflation concerns and the possibility of another interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve.

Crude oil prices snapped a five-day losing streak on Wednesday as prices climbed thanks to ongoing concerns about the Middle East conflict. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November delivery rose $1.90 or 2.1 percent to $92.40 a barrel.

Gold prices fell again on Wednesday as the U.S. dollar stayed firm amid bets the Federal Reserve will announce another hike in interest rate this year.

In U.S. economic news, the preliminary manufacturing, services and composite PMIs for September from S&P Global all came in above expectations. Also, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed a build of almost 3 million barrels in crude inventories last week when a significant drawdown was expected.

Reports on initial jobless claims and new home sales are due later today; on Friday, data on durables goods orders for August, and consumer confidence index score from the University of Michigan will be out.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region were mixed on Wednesday, thanks to continued uncertainty over the Middle East conflict. China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.34 percent, while the KOSPI in South Korea rose 0.90 percent, the TSE in Taiwan added 0.75 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 1.01 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 was off on holiday.

Meanwhile, European stocks were down on Wednesday as oil prices swung back into positive territory after five days of losses, thanks to uncertainty about reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The FTSE in London dipped 3.07 points or 0.03 percent to 10,705.26, while the DAX in Germany sank 168.22 points or 0.66 percent to 25,410.63 and the CAC 40 in France fell 31.50 points or 0.39 percent to 8,123.41.