US stocks slipped on Wednesday as investors worried about rising interest rates hurting corporate profits, while mounting tensions between Iran and the West also kept them on edge.
A number of strategists began to notice a rotation into larger-cap defensive stocks such as consumer staples, while smaller-cap stocks led the decline. The Russell 2000 Index was down nearly 1 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 41.56 points, or 0.38 percent, at 10,939.13. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 5.47 points, or 0.43 percent, at 1,270.41. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 14.42 points, or 0.64 percent, at 2,253.96.