Stocks Ended Lower, Valeant Draged on Health-Care

U.S. stocks ended lower on Wednesday , weighed by selling in energy, materials and health-care stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 48.50 points, or 0.28%, to 17,168.61. The S&P 500 fell 11.83 points, or 0.58%, to 2,018.94. The Nasdaq Composite was off 40.85 points, or 0.84%, to 4,840.12.

Valeant (VRX) skidded as much as 40% after short-selling firm Citron Research alleged that the drug company is shipping products to its own subsidiary and then falsely claiming the revenue.

New York state and some of its local governments will receive $1.2 million from UPS Inc. as part of a multistate settlement following allegations that the shipping company overcharged government customers in 14 states.

EBay Inc reported a 2.4 percent fall in revenue in its first quarterly results since the spinoff of its PayPal payments business. EBay’s net revenue fell to $2.1 billion in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 from $2.15 billion in the same quarter last year. Net income fell to $539 million, or 45 cents per share, from $673 million, or 54 cents per share, a year earlier.

American Express Co, the world’s largest credit card issuer, reported a 15.8 percent fall in quarterly profit due to higher expenses and a strong dollar. The company’s net income attributable to common shareholders fell to $1.23 billion, or $1.24 per share, in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, from $1.47 billion, or $1.40 per share, a year earlier.

ESPN said it would lay off nearly 300 employees at the company, or nearly 4% of its workforce, as the sports-media company looks to control costs in a challenging pay-TV landscape and reorganize for digital growth.

Oil futures settled at their lowest level in nearly three weeks on Wednesday after U.S. government data revealed a jump in weekly crude supplies. December West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.09, or 2.4%, to settle at $45.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.