U.S. stocks decline amid mixed data

U.S. stocks retreated further Wednesday as Wall Street assessed a slew of mixed economic reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 99.65 points, or 0.56 percent, to 17,651.26. The S&P 500 lost 12.25 points, or 0.59 percent, to 2,051.12. The Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 37.58 points, or 0.79 percent, to 4,725.64.

U.S. private sector employment increased 156,000 jobs in April from March, well below market consensus of 193,000, the April ADP National Employment Report said Wednesday.

The ADP figure is watched closely as a pre-indicator for the highly-anticipated nonfarm payrolls report due out Friday.

"The lackluster report likely lowered expectations for the jobs print on Friday, which carries far more weight with investors as a proxy for the labor market," said Jay Morelock, an economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

Meanwhile, the U.S. non-manufacturing index registered 55.7 percent in April, 1.2 percentage points higher than the March reading of 54.5 percent and beating market consensus of 54.7, the Institute Supply Management (ISM) reported Wednesday.

U.S. nonfarm business sector labor productivity decreased at a 1-percent annual rate during the first quarter of 2016, according to the Department of Labor.

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced Wednesday that the goods and services deficit was 40.4 billion U.S. dollars in March, down 6.5 billion dollars from a revised reading of 47 billion dollars in February.

In corporate news, shares of Time Warner Inc. rose 1.58 percent to 74.80 dollars apiece Wednesday after the U.S. media and entertainment company delivered better-than-expected quarterly results. Endit