Wall Street closes lower with banking losses

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) - Declining bank shares and oil prices helped push U.S. stocks to a lower close Thursday.

The Dow fell 31 points to end at 22,841 The S&P lost 4 points to 2,550.

The Nasdaq was off 12 points to finish the day at 6,591.

JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup each reported third quarter income gains of 6.3 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively, compared to the same period a year ago.

Although those figures beat expectations, the banks’ stock lost 0.9 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.

Shares of Bank of America fell 1.5 percent and Wells Fargo dropped 0.8 percent. The two institutions will announce their third quarter results Friday.

Falling crude oil prices also contributed to losses on Wall Street.

At the final bell, international benchmark Brent crude was trading at $56.30 -- a 1 percent decline.

American benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude was down 1.3 percent to $50.64.