Wall St. declines after Fed ends bond-buying program

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday, adding to their earlier declines after the Federal Reserve ended its monthly bond purchase program, as had been expected.

The day's losses were broad, with all 10 primary S&P 500 sectors lower on the day. Material shares <.SPLRCM> led the decline, falling 1.6 percent, while energy stocks <.SPNY> reversed an earlier advance to turn down by 0.3 percent.

Losses were outsized in the tech-heavy Nasdaq, pressured by a decline in Facebook.

The U.S. central bank ended its quantitative easing program of bond purchases, which at its peak pumped $85 billion a month into the financial system. It also signaled confidence the U.S. economic recovery would remain on track despite signs of a slowdown in many parts of the global economy.

"The Fed's announcement is exactly what everyone expected. The Fed sees enough improvement in economic activity to end QE, but at the same time, it will keep low rates because it isn't yet seeing what it wants to see as far as inflation goes," said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at Phoenix Financial Services in New York.

"Stocks are falling a bit because the recent rally brought us to very overbought levels, so we need to consolidate a little bit."

At 2:09 p.m. EDT the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 62.04 points, or 0.36 percent, to 16,943.71, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 9.86 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,975.19 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 35.00 points, or 0.77 percent, to 4,529.29.

DuPont lost 1.8 percent to $66.76 and was the largest drag on materials after it said there were "competitive advantages" in keeping its businesses together. Activist investor Nelson Peltz has urged DuPont to separate its various businesses in a move that has supported the company's shares.

Facebook Inc fell 6.1 percent to $75.84 the day after the social network announced an increase in spending in 2015 and projected a slowdown in revenue growth this quarter.

Despite the turn lower, equities mostly held onto recent gains, with the S&P 500 up 6.1 percent in the last nine sessions as earnings have mostly been strong. So far this reporting season, 75.3 percent of S&P 500 companies have exceeded profit expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data, above the long-term average of 63 percent.

Shares of both Orbital Sciences Corp and Alliant Techsystems fell a day after Orbital's unmanned rocket exploded seconds after liftoff from a commercial launch pad in Virginia. Orbital is in the midst of merging with Alliant's aerospace and defense division.

Orbital dropped 15.7 percent to $25.59 while Alliant lost 5.2 percent to $123. Both stocks were halted earlier in the session.

(Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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