U.S. stocks end lower; Treasury auction weak

STORY: U.S. stocks ended lower on Wednesday as technology shares declined, with investor jitters stoked by weak demand in a 10-year Treasury auction.

The Dow dropped six-tenths of a percent, the S&P 500 shed three quarters of a percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1%.

The indexes started the day higher but began to lose steam in afternoon trading, paring gains further after the Treasury auction.

A steep global stock selloff earlier this week rattled investors, who have been worried about a possible U.S. recession and weaker-than-expected forecasts from U.S. companies.

But George Ball, chairman of Sanders Morris Harris, said that recessions are cyclical and - in that regard - not necessarily cause for major concern.

"We've been in a prosperous phase for a long time. You know, the odds start to stack up to a 50-50 chance of a recession, with stock prices and multiples of earnings comparatively high as of this point. So it's a cautionary time, not a panic time. And the Monday selloff, I think, was more of a stock market financial phenomenon than an economic, or one that has some longer-term significance to it."

Stocks on the move Wednesday included Walt Disney, down roughly 4.5% after it predicted a "moderation in demand" at its theme park business in the coming quarters.

Shares of fellow entertainment company Warner Bros. Discovery ended the session higher but tumbled more than 8% in after-hours trading after missing Wall Street expectations for quarterly revenue.

And shares of AI high-flier Super Micro Computer fell 20% after the server company reported quarterly adjusted gross margins below estimates. Rival Dell dropped more than 7%.