NEW YORK, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded lower on Wednesday amid lingering concerns over a potential economic slowdown.
At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 113.49 points, or 0.49 percent, to 23213.97. The S&P 500 dropped 9.45 points, or 0.38 percent, to 2497.4. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 14.82 points, or 0.22 percent, to 6620.46.
Shares of Tesla fell more than eight percent, leading the laggards, after it reportedly left over 3,000 Model 3s in inventory in the U.S. by Sunday. The electric vehicle giant announced it delivered 90,700 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2018, weaker than market expectations.
FAANG stock, or the five most popular and best-performing tech stocks in the market, reflected mixed performance. Shares of Facebook rose over 3.1 percent, leading the advancers. Shares of Amazon also increased over 0.9 percent.
Shares of Netflix dwindled over one percent after analysts said the media services provider saw declining subscriber growth in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to CNBC.
Six the 11 primary S&P sectors suffered losses after Monday's comprehensive gains, with the real estate sector down over two percent, leading the laggards.
On the economic front, a survey showed U.S. manufacturing growth hit a 15-month low amid a weaker rise in new business and the joint-softest expansion in output since September 2017, according to a press release of the London-based global information provider IHS Markit.
The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit final U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) posted 53.8 in December, down from 55.3 in November, it said, which would likely wane investors' confidence in the U.S. growth in 2019. Enditem
