NEW YORK: US stocks Wednesday finished lower 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 percent) to 16,268.99.
The broad-based S&P 500 declined 13.06 (0.70 percent) to 1,852.56, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index sank 60.69 (1.43 percent) to 4,173.58.
Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities, said some tech investors were skeptical after Facebook announced a $2 billion deal to buy virtual reality company Oculus so soon after it announced a deal to buy WhatsApp for $19 billion.
Facebook shares fell 6.9 percent.
Investors also frowned on Candy Crush creator King Digital, which slumped 15.6 percent on its first day of trade after raising $500 million 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 percent).
"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 percent) and Tesla Motors (-3.4 percent.) An exception was software company Oracle, which rose 1.8 percent.
Most of the companies in the Dow dropped. Exceptions were pharmaceuticals Merck (+1.5 percent) and Pfizer (+1.1 percent).
News Corp. fell 1.9 percent while 21st Century Fox dipped 1.1 percent 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 percent, while DIRECTV rose 5.7 percent.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.70 percent from 2.73 percent Tuesday, while the 30-year declined to 3.55 percent from 3.57 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
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