Roundup: U.S. stocks fall mildly on Yellen's rate hike comments

U.S. stocks closed modestly lower after wavering in a tight range Wednesday, as investors assessed U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's comments about rate hikes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 50.57 points, or 0.28 percent, to 17,867.58. The S&P 500 dipped 7.48 points, or 0.35 percent, to 2,102.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index edged down 2.65 points, or 0.05 percent, to 5,142.48.

Yellen said Wednesday that the central bank may start raising short-term interest rates at its December policy meeting as the U.S. economy is "performing well."

"If the incoming information supports that expectation, then our statement indicates that December would be a live possibility," Yellen testified before the House Financial Services Committee on financial regulation, referring to its next policy meeting scheduled for Dec. 15-16.

She said the decision on hiking interest rates in December will depend on the Fed's policy arm's assessment of the economic outlook at that time and "that assessment will be informed by all of the data that we received between now and then."

On the economic front, U.S. private sector added 182,000 jobs from September to October, according to the ADP National Employment Report released Wednesday.

The ADP figure is watched closely as a pre-indicator for the non-farm payrolls report due Friday. Traders will keep a close eye on Friday's report for more hints on the timing of an interest rate hike.

"The ADP jobs number helps alleviate fears of a weak October employment report this Friday, a concern following the drop into contraction territory for the ISM employment index earlier this week," said Jay Morelock, an economist at FTN Financial.

"While not as robust as the consistently +200k readings in 2014, the ADP has reported consistently solid jobs numbers in 2015," he said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. international trade deficit in goods and services came in at 40.8 billion U.S. dollars in September, down 7.2 billion dollars from revised 48 billion dollars in August, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

The CBOE Volatility Index, often referred to as Wall Street's fear gauge, increased 6.67 percent to end at 15.51 on Wednesday.

In other markets, oil prices plunged as the increase of last week's U.S. crude stockpiles came out larger than expected.

The West Texas Intermediate for December delivery fell 1.58 dollars to 46.32 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for December delivery decreased 1.96 dollars to 48.58 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

The U.S. dollar soared against other major currencies as Yellen said the country's sound economy could justify an interest-rate hike by year-end.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.0856 dollars from 1.0963 dollars in the previous session, while the dollar bought 121.57 Japanese yen, higher than 121.06 yen of the previous session.

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell as a stronger U.S. dollar and positive U.S. economic data put pressure on the precious metal.

The most active gold contract for December delivery lost 7.9 dollars, or 0.71 percent, to settle at 1,106.2 dollars per ounce. Endit