The US markets ended in red on Wednesday, prolonging the Southward journey seen over the past few sessions. The weakness on Wall Street came on the back of more-than-expected decline in retail sales in the month of December. The Commerce Department said retail sales slumped by 0.9 percent in December, while economists had expected sales to edge down by just 0.1 percent. The bigger than expected drop in sales was due in large part to lower gasoline prices, although the report still raised concerns that the U.S. economy could succumb to the slowdown overseas. The release of the disappointing retail sales data came on the heels of news that the World Bank cut its forecast for global GDP growth in 2015. Selling pressure was also generated in reaction to disappointing quarterly results from JP Morgan (JPM), with shares of the financial giant falling by 3.5 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by 189.59 points or 1.06 percent, to 17,427.09, the S&P 500 shed 11.76 points or 0.58 percent, to close at 2,011.27, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 22.18 points or 0.48 percent at 4,639.32.
Indian ADRs closed mostly in red on Wednesday; Tata Motors was down 0.93%, Wipro was down up 0.26%, HDFC Bank was down 0.24% and ICICI Bank was down by 0.21%. On the other hand Infosys was up by 0.03%.