Stocks Opened Lower; Oil Fell

U.S. stocks opened lower on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average on track to slip after posting four straight record closes. The Dow lately fell 69.37 points, or 0.37%, to 18,853.69. The S&P 500 shed 5.45 points, or 0.25%, to 2,174.94. The Nasdaq Composite was down 4.49 points, or 0.09%, to 5,271.13.

Oil prices fell Wednesday, as investors cashed in on earlier gains and waited for a meeting of major oil producers about a proposed deal to scale back production. Brent crude fell 61 cents, or 1.3%, to $46.35 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate futures were down 73 cents, or 1.6%, at $45.08 a barrel.

U.S. industrial production was unchanged in October, weighed down by a decline in utilities output, data from the Federal Reserve showed on Wednesday. Output for September was revised to show a 0.2 percent decline in output rather than a 0.1 percent increase.

U.S. producer prices were unchanged in October as the price of services fell, another sign that inflationary pressure remains modest. The Labor Department said Wednesday that its producer price index was flat last month after rising 0.3 percent in September. Services prices fell 0.3 percent, pulled down by a record 5.7 percent drop in the price of brokerage and other financial services.

A number of energy ministers from OPEC oil-producing countries are likely to meet informally in Doha on Friday to try to build consensus over decisions taken by the full group in September in Algiers, an Algerian energy source said.

Target Corp. raised its outlook for same-store sales over the holiday season as the retailer reported better-than-expected results in the latest period. Over all for the October quarter, Target earned $608 million, or $1.06 a share, up from $549 million, or 87 cents a share, a year earlier.

Lowe’s Cos. cut its guidance for the year amid a traffic slowdown in August and September. for the October quarter, Lowe’s posted a profit of $379 million, or 43 cents a share, down from $736 million, or 80 cents a share, a year earlier.For 2016, the company now expects earnings of about $3.52, below the $4.06 a share it expected previously.