Stocks ended a wobbly day lower on Wall Street after a late-afternoon drop erased the tentative gains major indexes had been clinging to for much of the day.

The S&P 500 gave back 0.3% Wednesday, its sixth consecutive loss. The Dow and Nasdaq ended with smaller losses. Yields on the 2-year and 10-year Treasury notes ended lower.

Stocks had waffled between gains and losses for much of the day as traders parsed a report from the government that showed inflation at the wholesale level eased last month, though it was a bit worse than expected.

Crude oil prices fell.