Listless trading leads to modest decrease

A day of mostly listless trading on Wall Street ended Wednesday with modest losses as the stock market gave back some of its gains from the day before.

Technology stocks accounted for most of the selling, which lost some of its momentum toward the end of the day. Energy companies also fell. Financial sector stocks declined as bond yields, which are used to set interest rates on loans, headed lower.

The modest losses came as investors weighed mixed data on the economy and the latest batch of corporate earnings reports.

A move Tuesday by the House of Representatives to show support for the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong appeared to dim some investor optimism about the prospects for progress in the latest trade talks between the U.S. and China.

Investors are worried the action by the House could blunt the recent positive momentum in the trade negotiation, said Cayman Wills, global head of equities at J.P. Morgan Private Bank.

"It might take it a step back," she said.

Stocks got off to a downbeat start as investors sized up a mixed batch of economic data and company earnings reports.

The Commerce Department said U.S. retail sales fell in September by the largest amount in seven months. That stoked worries that consumers are pulling back on spending, a key growth driver for the U.S. economy.

Stocks are on track to notch gains this week, in part because investors have mostly set aside concerns over the trade negotiations in favor of focusing on corporate earnings for the third quarter. Even so, company earnings are expected to be down by nearly 5%, according to Factset.