NEW YORK -- Wall Street lost ground Wednesday as crude oil prices reaching another record high of 132 U.S. dollars weighed on stocks that strove to rebound from the previous big decline.
Crude-oil futures rallied past the 132 dollars a barrel mark for the first time, after the U.S. Energy Department's forecasting arm, the Energy Information Administration, released the latest energy inventories report, indicating a 5.4 million barrels decline of crude oil last week. Analysts had expected a small increase. The rally elevated investors' concern about inflation and consumer spending.
Investors also pored over minutes from the last Federal Reserverate-setting decision, due out at 2 p.m. EST.
In corporate news, Time Warner rose moderately as it is going to get a dividend of 9.25 billion dollars as it separates from Time Warner Cable.
The Dow Jones fell 65.71 to 12,762.97. Broader indexes also dropped. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dipped 1.87 to 1,411.53, and the Nasdaq slipped 3.80 to 2,488.46.
Crude-oil futures rallied past the 132 dollars a barrel mark for the first time, after the U.S. Energy Department's forecasting arm, the Energy Information Administration, released the latest energy inventories report, indicating a 5.4 million barrels decline of crude oil last week. Analysts had expected a small increase. The rally elevated investors' concern about inflation and consumer spending.
Investors also pored over minutes from the last Federal Reserverate-setting decision, due out at 2 p.m. EST.
In corporate news, Time Warner rose moderately as it is going to get a dividend of 9.25 billion dollars as it separates from Time Warner Cable.
The Dow Jones fell 65.71 to 12,762.97. Broader indexes also dropped. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dipped 1.87 to 1,411.53, and the Nasdaq slipped 3.80 to 2,488.46.
