NEW YORK, March 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks ended lower on Wednesday after volatile trading, as Wall Street digested a batch of economic reports.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 9.29 points, or 0.04 percent, to 23,848.42. The S&P 500 fell 7.62 points, or 0.29 percent, to 2,605.00. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 59.58 points, or 0.85 percent, to 6,949.23.
U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017, above market consensus of 2.7 percent, according to the third estimate released by the Commerce Department Wednesday.
The upward revision in real GDP reflected upward revisions to personal consumption expenditures and private inventory investment, said the department.
U.S. real GDP increased 2.3 percent in 2017, much higher than the 1.5-percent growth in 2016.
"Fourth quarter GDP was revised four-tenths higher, with a little else than half coming from consumption and investment and the rest from inventories. The revision was modest enough that it is not likely to have much market or Fed impact," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.
In a separate report, the department reported that the international trade deficit in goods came in at 75.4 billion U.S. dollars in February, up 0.1 billion dollars from the January reading.
Meanwhile, the Pending Home Sales Index grew 3.1 percent to 107.5 in February from a downwardly revised 104.3 in January, according to the National Association of Realtors Wednesday.
The tech sector was also in focus, which retreated further Wednesday after previous day's heavy sell-off.