Wall Street closes lower as Dow ends winning streak

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) – A drop in crude oil prices and declining airline stocks helped to push Wall Street to a lower close Thursday.

The Dow Jones fell 78 points to end the day at 18,517 points. The S&P 500 was down 8 points to 2,165 and the Nasdaq lost 16 points to finish at 5,074.

The numbers ended the Dow's records of nine consecutive days of higher closings with seven at new record.

After its second-quarter earnings report failed to beat market expectations, shares of Southwest Airlines fell 11 percent, while stock in German airline giant Lufthansa dipped almost 6 percent.

Concerns about an oversupply in the global market kept crude prices from rising.

At the final bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell 2.6 percent to $44.55, and international benchmark Brent crude was down 2.4 percent to $46.06.