US stocks fell on Wednesday, a day after earnings season opened with Dow component Alcoa posting a quarterly net loss while Chevron's profit warning dragged on the energy sector. Shares of Alcoa slid 4.7 percent to $8.70 and weighed on the Dow following the US aluminium producer's report late Tuesday of a quarterly net loss.
Chevron Corp shares fell 4.2 percent to $112.39 and ranked as the biggest drag on the S&P 500 after the second-largest US oil company warned that third-quarter profits would be "substantially lower" than in the previous quarter. Chevron said a hurricane and planned maintenance had curtailed its oil and gas output, while a fire hurt its refining business. An S&P energy sector index fell 1.9 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 103.65 points, or 0.77 percent, to 13,369.88. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 8.45 points, or 0.59 percent, to 1,433.03. The Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 13.43 points, or 0.44 percent, to 3,051.59.