U.S. stocks closed lower Wednesday in low volume trade as a decline in oil prices weighed. In U.S. economic news, pending home sales fell 0.9 percent in November from an upwardly revised October reading, according to the National Association of Realtors. The dollar held slightly higher against major world currencies. Light sweet crude oil for February delivery fell $1.27 to $36.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while gold futures dropped $8.20 to $1,059.80 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 42, or 0.23 percent, to 17,680. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 6, or 0.30 percent, to 2,072. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 19, or 0.37 percent, to 5,089.
