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US stocks fell on Wednesday, weighed down by a slide in Apple's share price and weakness in the energy sector, though European and major Asian bourses earlier ended higher.
Oil prices ended sharply lower, pressured by ongoing concerns about oversupply and bets that demand may slow with global economic growth.
"Investors are still looking for policy developments out of China, and also wary of what might come out of the Fed next week," said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.45 percent to 16,253.57, while the S&P 500 lost 1.39 percent to 1,942.04 and the Nasdaq Composite ended down 1.15 per cent at 4,756.53.
Shares of Apple ended down 1.9 per cent at $110.15 in heavy trading, after its latest product launch failed to meet expectations.
US energy stocks led declines among S&P 500 index stocks, falling 1.9 per cent as US oil prices fell 3.9 percent. Chevron CVX.N was down 2.5 per cent at $74.92.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 1.4 per cent and the JP Morgan world equity index gained 0.3 per cent.
Market rally
Earlier Wednesday major stock markets had rallied on expectation of increased government support from China and the possibility that Japan will cut corporate taxes.
Japan's Nikkei earlier soared 7.7 per cent, its biggest single-day gain since October 2008, galvanised by hopes of corporate tax cuts.
China's Finance Ministry had said on Wednesday it would strengthen fiscal policy, boost infrastructure spending and speed up tax reform, helping lift Chinese shares for a second day.
Investors' increased appetite for risk overseas saw the US dollar firm against the safe-haven yen and the euro, but the greenback's gains were lost as Wall Street stocks reversed course.
The euro was little changed against the US currency at $1.1206 while the yen was also near flat at 120.47 per dollar. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was nearly flat.
Benchmark Brent crude oil was down 4.3 per cent at $47.41 a barrel. US crude fell 4 per cent to $44.11 per barrel.
US 10-year Treasury yields were at 2.1953 per cent, with a slight loss of less than 1/32 in price.
Copper hit a seven-week high above $5,400 a tonne on the back of the Chinese stimulus news and was recently up 0.4 per cent at $5,365 a tonne.
Gold fell 1.4 per cent, the most in seven weeks, to $1,106 an ounce -the lowest in nearly a month.
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