Wall Street closing slightly lower Wednesday

U.S. stocks closed slightly lower Wednesday, as Wall Street failed to extend its win streak to seven days. In U.S. economic news, the government said that new home sales tumbled 14.5 percent in March to the slowest pace since July. However, median prices of new homes sold rose to a record high of $290,000. In international economic news, European markets closed modestly lower. Asian markets closed with mixed results after the latest survey of manufacturing activity showed China’s factories continued to struggle in April. Both of the main stock markets in China were lower, while the benchmark Nikkei in Tokyo jumped by 1.1 percent. The dollar matched the euro, but lost ground versus the pound and the yen. Light sweet crude oil for June delivery dropped 31 cents to $101.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures added $3.50 to $1,284.60 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 12.72, or 0.08 percent, to 16,501.65. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 4.16, or 0.22 percent, to 1,875.39. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index went down 34.49, or 0.83 percent, to 4,126.97.