Wall St falls after tepid earnings and steady Fed

NEW YORK (REUTERS) - United States (US) stocks ended lower for a second day on Wednesday, as investors soured on another round of underwhelming corporate results and the Federal Reserve said it would stick to its stimulus plan until the job market improves.

The S&P 500 has lost 3.6 per cent over the past five sessions, hurt by weak earnings outlooks and top-line revenue misses from large multinational companies. The index is now down 3.9 per cent from its closing high of 1,465.77 set on Sept 14.

Boeing bucked the trend with a more optimistic outlook, but it could not break away from the rest of the market as it was pulled into negative territory in the afternoon.

Shares of the defense and aerospace company, a Dow component, fell 0.2 percent to $72.71.