NEW YORK, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks closed lower on Wednesday as investors digested a slew of economic data amid lingering worries over Turkey's financial crisis.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 137.51 points, or 0.54 percent, to 25,162.41. The S&P 500 was down 21.59 points, or 0.76 percent, to 2,818.37. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 96.78 points, or 1.23 percent, to 7,774.12.
Chevron and Boeing were among the worst performers in the Dow. Shares of the companies traded 3.79 percent and 2.18 percent lower in late trading.
Seven of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors retreated, with energy leading the laggards. Tech sector declined more than 1 percent after a disappointing quarterly report from Chinese tech giant Tencent.
Shares of Macy's dropped more than 15 percent after the company's quarterly report showed it is struggling in sales growth.
Fears of Turkey's financial crisis and the possible contagion to other economies remained, weighing on the market, experts noted.
On economic data, U.S. retail sales stood at 507.5 billion U.S. dollars in July, an increase of 0.5 percent from the previous month, according to the Department of Commerce on Wednesday.
U.S. business inventories rose 0.1 percent in June and sales increased 0.3 percent. However, the ratio of inventories to sales dropped to 1.33 from 1.34, the department reported.
Meanwhile, the U.S. National Association of Home Builders' monthly confidence index fell one point to 67 in August, said the association. The closely-watched tracker of builder sentiment has been moving down since May. Enditem
