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US stocks fall on oil weakness

New York - US stocks on Wednesday dropped in early trade as petroleum-linked equities suffered more losses on the latest retreat in oil prices.

About 25 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 17 678.52, down 122.68 points (0.69%).

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 12.80 (0.62%) to 2 047.02, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index declined 20.24 (0.42%) to 4 746.23.

Forecast lower demand

Dow component ExxonMobil fell 2.4% and oil-services titan Weatherford International tumbled 4.4% on falling oil prices as the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries forecast lower demand for its crude in 2015.

International markets steadied after Tuesday's rout.

Shanghai's index jumped nearly three percent on hopes for more Chinese government stimulus. Equity markets in Britain, France and Germany all rose.

Dow component JPMorgan Chase fell 2% after the Federal Reserve said the largest US bank by assets would need $22bn more in capital by 2019 to meet new capital rules for systemically important financial institutions.

Slow recovery

Costco Wholesale, a retail chain selling groceries, appliances and other items, rose 1.3% as fiscal first-quarter net income rose 16.7% to $496m on a 5% gain in comparable sales.

Yum Brands, which owns KFC and other fast-food chains, fell 3.4% after saying its China division's same-store sales for 2014 would be "negative mid-single digits" due to an unexpectedly slow recovery following a tainted-meat scandal involving a supplier.

Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury held steady at 2.22%, while the 30-year dipped to 2.87% from 2.88% on Tuesday. Bond prices and yields move inversely.

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