Dow drops more than 100 as another run at 20,000 fails

NEW YORK — Stocks fell Wednesday as the Dow dropped more than 100 points, putting more distance between the blue chips and that elusive 20,000 mark.

Dow 20,000 has been in sight for several days now, with the index getting as close as a couple of dozen points from the milestone but never reaching it. 

At the 4 p.m. ET close, the Dow stood 0.6% lower for the day, off 111 points and 166 away from 20,000. Meanwhile the Nasdaq sank 0.9% and the S&P 500 lost 0.8%. 

The broad decline wiped out most of the gains from the day before, when the Nasdaq composite index closed at a record high.

Trading was quiet in a light week of economic and company news before the New Year’s Day holiday weekend.

Shares of luxury handbag maker Kate Spade (KATE) leaped 23.1% after news reports surfaced about a possible sale of the company.

NVIDIA (NVDA) fell 6.9% after a short-seller cautioned that the chip maker for video games faces competition and might not maintain investor results that have made it one of 2016's top financial market fliers.

Qualcomm (QCOM) slipped 2.2% after antitrust regulators in South Korea fined the company $865 million, claiming the chipmaker engaged in unfair sales practices.

Oil on the U.S. market settled about 0.1% higher — to $54.06 a barrel, an 18-month high.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped to 2.51%.

USA TODAY's Kevin McCoy and Nathan Bomey contributed.