US stock indexes move lower in afternoon trading; oil rises

US stocks veered broadly lower in afternoon trading yesterday, with real estate and financial companies leading the slide. The losses wiped out the gains from the day before, when the Nasdaq composite index closed at a record high. Trading was quiet in a light week of economic and company news before the New Year's Day holiday weekend.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 101 points, or 0.5 percent, to 19,843 as of 2:44 p.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 17 points, or 0.8 percent, to 2,251. The Nasdaq slid 49 points, or 0.9 percent, to 5,438.

THE QUOTE: "Volume is pretty weak, so there's no aggressive selling taking place," said Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management. "It's more sellers locking in some better gains than they thought they were going to get this year. It's been a really good year, so letting a little go is just fine."

SHORT THRIFT: Nvidia slumped 6.6 percent after short seller Citron Research said it expects the chipmaker's shares, which have tripled in value this year, to fall substantially. The stock was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500 index, sliding $7.77 to $109.55.

POSION PILL: Fred's dropped 4.2 percent on a published report indicating that the regional drugstore chain has adopted a "poison pill" to discourage an activist investor from interfering with the company's plan to buy 865 Rite Aid stores. Rite Aid has to sell the stores in order to appease anti-trust regulators and close its $9.4 billion buyout deal with Walgreens Boots Alliance. Shares in Fred's fell 83 cents to $18.80.

NOT FINE: Qualcomm slipped 2.1 percent after antitrust regulators in South Korea fined the company $865 million, claiming the chipmaker engaged in unfair sales practices, including refusing to let competitors license patents that are essential for chipmaking. The stock lost $1.38 to $65.87.

DRILLED OUT: Shares in oil and natural gas exploration companies were down. Chesapeake Energy lost 40 cents, or 5.3 percent, to $7.19. Murphy Oil shed 91 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $31.91. Southwestern Energy slid 22 cents, or 2 percent, to $10.80.

MARKETS OVERSEAS: In Europe, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 each ended essentially flat. Britain's FTSE 100 posted a record-high close of 7,106.08, a gain of 0.5 percent. Earlier, in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 was flat. Australia's S&P ASX 200 gained 1 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.8 percent. South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.9 percent.

ENERGY: Benchmark US crude rose 16 cents to close at $54.06 a barrel in New York. It rose 88 cents on Tuesday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, climbed 13 cents to close at $56.22 a barrel in London. It gained 93 cents the day before.

BONDS AND CURRENCIES: Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.51 percent from 2.56 percent late Tuesday. In currency trading, the dollar was trading at 117.22 yen, down from 117.45 on Tuesday. The euro fell to $1.0397 from $1.0458.

METALS: The price of gold rose $2.10 to $1,140.90 an ounce. Silver added 5 cents to $16.04 an ounce. Copper fell 2 cents to $2.50 a pound.