U.S. stocks closed lower Wednesday as investors bet that a new U.S. budget deal raises chances the Federal Reserve (Fed) might start to scale back its support for the economy soon. In corporate news, Twitter shares bucked the downward trend and rose slightly. The stock even hit an all-time high of $53.87 earlier in the day. BlackBerry shares ended the day lower, erasing earlier gains. The troubled smartphone maker has been punished this year, with shares down nearly 50 percent. Shares of MasterCard rose after the company said it would increase its quarterly dividend by 83 percent and announced a share buyback program. The company also announced a 10-for-1 stock split effective in January. Bank stocks were under pressure one day after federal regulators officially approved new restrictions on risky trading by federally-insured financial institutions. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase each fell more than 1 percent while Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Bank of America all finished the day down about 2 percent. The dollar lost ground against the pound, but rose versus the euro and the yen. Light sweet crude oil for January delivery dropped $1.07 to $97.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures fell $3.90 to $ 1,257.20 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 129.6, or 0.81 percent, to 15,843.53. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 20.4, or 1.13 percent, to 1,782.22. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 56.68, or 1.40 percent, to 4,003.81.
