A sharp fall in Wal-Mart's shares dragged the Dow Jones index lower.
Shares in the retail giant fell 10% after the company revised its earnings forecast down.
The slump in Wal-Mart shares also affected other US retailers - Macy's was down by 1% and Target was down by 3.5%
The Dow Jones closed at at 16,924.75, a drop of 157.14 points or 0.92%. The Nasdaq index closed at 4,782.85, a fall of 13.76 points or 0.29%.
The S&P 500 declined after early gains landing at 1,994.24 a loss of 9.45 points or 0.47%.
Among the Dow Jones winners was Bank of America, which closed up by 0.77% after reporting a quarterly profit of $4.1bn.
Other winners included Eli Lilly, Newmont Mining, Peabody Energy and Delta Airlines.
Among the losers was JP Morgan Chase, behind by 2.5% after profit missed analyst expectations.
Wells Fargo also fell 0.69% after reporting results.
