1st LD Writethru: U.S. stocks end lower on oil rout

U.S. stocks closed lower after wild swings Wednesday, as a further decline in oil prices continued to weigh on investor sentiment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 249.28 points, or 1.56 percent, to 15,766.74. The S&P 500 dipped 22.00 points, or 1.17 percent, to 1,859.33. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 5.26 points, or 0.12 percent, to 4,471.69.

Oil prices refreshed their multi-year lows on Wednesday, dragged down by a global supply glut. The West Texas Intermediate for February delivery settled at 26.55 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its lowest level since May 2003.

Investors turned to safe haven assets, such as sovereign bonds and gold, as global stock markets are in full retreat.

European equities saw heavy sell-offs Wednesday on plunging oil, with Germany's benchmark DAX index at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange tumbling 2.82 percent.

In Asia, Tokyo stocks plummeted Wednesday amid the yen's rise against the U.S. dollar and concerns about the global economic outlook, with the benchmark Nikkei diving over 3 percent to its lowest close in 15 months.

Chinese benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.03 percent to end at 2,976.69 points.

In economic news, the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers declined 0.1 percent in December on a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Labor Department said Wednesday. The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.1 percent in December, its smallest increase since August.

"The divergence between upward price pressure for services, led by housing and medical care, and downward price pressure on commodities continued in December," said Jay Morelock, an economist at FTN Financial.

Meanwhile, U.S. private-owned housing starts in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.149 million units, 2.5 percent below the revised November estimate, said the Commerce Department Wednesday. Endit