November 20, 2013- Stocks Close Lower on Fed Tapering Comments

After seeing moderate strength for much of the session, stocks pulled back rather sharply in afternoon trading on Wednesday. Renewed concerns about the outlook for the Federal Reserve's stimulus program weighed on the markets. The major averages regained some ground going into the close but still ended the day in the red. The Dow fell 66.21 points or 0.4 percent to 15,900.82, the Nasdaq dipped 10.28 points or 0.3 percent to 3,921.27 and the S&P 500 slid 6.50 points or 0.4 percent to 1,781.37. The selling pressure that emerged in afternoon trading came on the heels of the release of the minutes of the Fed's October monetary policy meeting, which noted that the central bank could decide to slow the pace of its asset purchases at one of its next few meetings.