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New York - US stocks finished lower on Wednesday with technology names tumbling the most after the market snubbed a Facebook acquisition announcement and King Digital's first day of trade as a public company.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 98.89 (0.60%) to 16 268.99.
The broad-based S&P 500 declined 13.06 (0.70%) to 1 852.56, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index sank 60.69 (1.43%) to 4 173.58.
Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities, said some tech investors were skeptical after Facebook announced a $2bn deal to buy virtual reality company Oculus so soon after it announced a deal to buy WhatsApp for $19bn.
Facebook shares fell 6.9%.
Investors also frowned on Candy Crush creator King Digital, which slumped 15.6 percent on its first day of trade after raising $500m in an IPO. Shares closed at $19, well below the IPO price of $22.50.
King's decline also depressed other videogame developers, including Zynga (-4.1 percent) and Electronic Arts (-2.5%).
"It's been an ugly time for tech stocks over the last week or so," James said.
The decline in tech names was fairly broad-based and included Google (-2.3 percent), Amazon (-3.2%) and Tesla Motors (-3.4%.) An exception was software company Oracle, which rose 1.8%.
Most of the companies in the Dow dropped. Exceptions were pharmaceuticals Merck (+1.5%) and Pfizer (+1.1%).
News Corp. fell 1.9% while 21st Century Fox dipped 1.1% after global media titan Rupert Murdoch named his son Lachlan Murdoch as vice president of both firms, a possible sign of who will lead them when the father, 83, retires.
A report that Dish Network and DIRECTV could merge lifted both companies. Dish jumped 6.3%, while DIRECTV rose 5.7%.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.70% from 2.73% on Tuesday, while the 30-year declined to 3.55% from 3.57%. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
