1st LD Writethru: U.S. stocks tick down on falling oil

U.S. stocks ended lower Wednesday as a renewed decline in oil prices weighed on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 79.98 points, or 0.45 percent, to 17,502.59. The S&P 500 lost 13.09 points, or 0.64 percent, to 2,036.71. The Nasdaq Composite Index went down 52.80 points, or 1.10 percent, to 4,768.86.

Oil prices tumbled Wednesday after figures showed U.S. crude stockpiles rose last week by more than expected, with U.S. oil settling below 40 U.S. dollars a barrel.

U.S. crude supplies gained 9.4 million barrels to 532.5 million barrels last week, 65.9 million barrels more than one year before, according to the weekly report released by the Energy Information Administration Wednesday.

On the economic front, U.S. sales of new single-family houses in February 2016 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 512,000, roughly on par with market consensus, according to the Commerce Department Wednesday.

This is 2.0 percent above the revised January rate of 502,000, but is 6.1 percent below the February 2015 estimate of 545,000.

"New home sales lost upward momentum over the course of 2015 but have begun to regain some of the lost ground. Sales of new single-family homes have been stuck bouncing between 450k and 550k as limited supply struggled to meet demand, driving prices up and keeping growth restrained," said Sophia Kearney-Lederman, an economic analyst at FTN Financial.

In corporate news, shares of Nike Inc. slumped 3.79 percent to 62.44 dollars apiece Wednesday after the company delivered quarterly earnings slightly above market estimates but revenue short of forecast.

After Tuesday's closing bell, the athletic footwear and apparel maker reported diluted earnings per share of 0.55 dollar for its fiscal 2016 third quarter, on revenue of 8 billion dollars.

Meanwhile, investors were still assessing the impacts of Tuesday's explosions in Brussels, Belgium, that left at least 34 people dead and hundreds more wounded. Endit