Stocks fell Wednesday amid a weak outlook for first-quarter corporate earnings, signs from the financial-services sector of additional declared losses—or write-downs—and oil futures and retail gasoline prices hitting fresh record highs. The mood on Wall Street was cautious ahead of what is expected to be a disappointing earnings season. First-quarter earnings for the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 are expected to fall by 13.2 percent. A profit warning from parcel service UPS, which is seen as a gauge of the broader economy because it carries goods worth more than 5 percent of the country's gross domestic product on its trucks and airplanes, added to the market's pessimism about earnings. Further depressing stocks was news that three big Wall Street banks could see more losses on risky investments. Investment banks Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Lehman Brothers fell after the firms disclosed their exposure to certain risky kinds of investments that have become difficult to value. Light sweet crude for May delivery rose $2.37 to $110.87 after hitting a record trading high above $112 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The U.S. government's weekly inventory report showed rude supplies falling by 3.2 million barrels compared to the 2.4 million-barrel increase analysts had expected. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 49.18, or 0.4 percent, to 12,527.26. Shares of Citigroup were moderately higher after reports indicated that the bank is close to a deal to unload $12 billion of risky leveraged loans and bonds to a group of private-equity firms. Boeing gained over 4 percent despite the news that the aerospace giant will delay the launch of its highly anticipated 787 Dreamliner commercial aircraft. The broader S&P 500 fell 11.05, or 0.8 percent, to 1,354.49. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 26.64, or 1.1 percent, to 2,322.12. The New York Stock Exchange composite index fell 75.81 to 9,074.82. The American Stock Exchange composite index fell 10.13 to 2,262.56. And the Russell 2000 index fell 13.54 to 698.38.
