Falling oil prices drag Wall Street down

NEW YORK (AA) – A sudden decline in oil prices dragged American stocks lower Wednesday on Wall Street.

Crude prices fell after U.S. weekly crude oil inventories increased, against expectations of a decline.

Inventories rose 1.05 million barrels, or 0.2 percent, for the week ending Aug. 5, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Analysts anticipated a decline of 1.02 million barrels.

At the final bell, the American benchmark was down 3 percent to $41.48 and the international benchmark was at $43.88 -- a 2.5 percent decrease.

The dip in crude prices was felt by the major indexes.

The Dow Jones was down 37 points to 18,495, while the S&P 500 fell six points to 2,175 and the Nasdaq lost 20 points to close at 5,204.

The markets will focus Thursday on the initial jobless claims report and import and export price indexes for July.