us stocks finished slightly lower on wednesday after erasing their gains from earlier in the day during the final hour of trading the dow jones industrial average djia finished 4837 points or 02 lower at 3048180 after the dow climbed more than 240 points earlier in the session the sp 500 spx closed 495 points lower or 01 at 375984 the nasdaq composite comp finished down 1622 points or 02 at 11053 us stocks rose earlier in the session after federal reserve chairman jerome powell reiterated the central banks commitment to battling inflation while insisting that the feds most aggressive monetary tightening since the 1980s wouldnt derail the us economy however a sharp drop in us crude oil prices hammered energy stocks driving the energy sector to the worst performance among the sp 500s 11 sectors investors had been watching to see if us stocks might clinch backtoback gains on wednesday after tuesdays sharp rally which followed last weeks fedinspired blowup