U.S. stocks closed lower Wednesday with energy stocks leadingdeclines. In U.S. economic news, new homesales rose 2.0 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of512,000 units. New single-family homesales surged in the West, but fell sharply in the Northeast, Midwest, andSouth. The dollar traded more than half apercent higher. Light sweet crude oilfor May delivery dropped $1.66 to $39.79 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while gold futures fell $24.60 to $1,224.00 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average declined82, or 0.47 percent, to 17,499. Thebroader Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 13, or 0.66 percent, to 2,036. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index dropped53, or 1.09 percent, to 4,768.