Wall Street ends lower on mixed earnings, US-China trade tensions

STORY: Wall Street closed lower on Wednesday, with the Dow dropping about seven-tenths of a percent, the S&P 500 losing just over half a percent and the Nasdaq falling close to one percent.Investors grew cautious after reports said the Trump administration is considering limits on exports to China that use U.S. software.All three indexes extended losses after the news, with weakness in tech and communication services weighing the Nasdaq down the most.But Chris Konstantinos, chief investment strategist at Riverfront Investment Group, remains sanguine about the overall bull rally."We have to recognize that the market and the Nasdaq in particular, has come a long way this year, particularly since the April doldrums. And so as we head into the end of the year, typically September is the month where things get really wonky. But also October has a reputation for being a relatively volatile month historically. October is typically the month where the most market bottoms are made, and we're nowhere near that yet, of course. [FLASH] And it's been such a smooth ride for most of the summer that it wouldn't surprise me to see some profit-taking happening on a tactical basis here - doesn't change the overall or overarching view that we have that the path of least resistance for the market in the near term is very much up."Stocks on the move Wednesday included Tesla, which dipped in extended trading despite reporting record revenue. Profit per share, however, missed analysts' estimates.Shares of Netflix slid 10% after the streaming company missed quarterly profit expectations, raising concerns about a stretched valuation.And shares of Intuitive Surgical jumped nearly 14% after the company posted better-than-expected third-quarter earnings. The results were driven by growing demand for its surgical robots that are used in minimally invasive procedures.

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