Volatility In Markets Decreases Ahead Of Apple, Amazon Earnings

U.S. stocks closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 ending a three-session winning streak.

US new home sales fell to a 603,000 annual rate in September compared to a revised 677,000 a month ago, while trade gap on goods increased to a three-month high of $92.2 billion in September from a $87.3 billion deficit in the previous month.

As far as the earnings season is concerned, 170 S&P 500 companies have released quarterly results so far, with around 75% of those exceeding market estimates.

The Boeing Company reported a wider-than-expected Q3 loss, while Visa Inc V posted upbeat quarterly profit.

The Nasdaq 100 dipped 2.26% to close at 11,405.90 on Wednesday amid a decline in Alphabet Inc. GOOG and Microsoft Corporation MSFT shares, while the S&P 500 fell 0.74%. The Dow Jones gained over 2 points to settle at 31,839.11 in the previous session.

Investors are awaiting earnings results from Apple Inc. AAPL and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN.

Major sectors on the S&P 500 closed on a mixed note, with energy and health care stocks recording the biggest surge on Wednesday. However, communication services stocks dropped sharply, falling around 4.8% in the previous session.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange's CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) fell 4.2% to close at 27.28 points on Wednesday.

What is CBOE Volatility Index?

The CBOE Volatility Index, popularly known as VIX, is a measure of the equity market's expectation of volatility based on S&P 500 index call and put options.