By Yashaswini Swamynathan
REUTERS - U.S. stocks reversed course to trade lower in a choppy market on Wednesday, dragged down by healthcare stocks and as oil prices pared gains.
Bristol-Myers and Amgen weighed the most on the S&P 500 healthcare sector, which fell 0.45 percent. The index had risen 0.7 percent on Tuesday.
Oil prices, which rallied as much as 3 percent earlier in the day, gave up much of those gain as data showed a large build in U.S. gasoline inventories.
Adding to the downbeat market sentiment was the lowering of the 2016 U.S. growth forecast by the International Monetary Fund.
In a testimony before a Congressional committee, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the central bank was considering changes to the annual stress tests given to U.S. banks.
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Yellen also said the economy was not seeing any meaningful upward pressure on inflation.
"Yellen's remarks are generally in line with expectations. I think what we are seeing today is really a lot of noise," said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis.
At 11:00 a.m. EDT the Dow Jones industrial average was down 22.77 points, or 0.12 percent, at 18,205.53.
The S&P 500 index was down 5.01 points, or 0.23 percent, at 2,154.92.
The Nasdaq Composite was down 12.81 points, or 0.24 percent, at 5,292.90.
All of the 11 major S&P 500 indexes were trading lower, with telecom services falling the most by 1.28 percent. AT&T was the biggest drag on the index after UBS downgraded the stock to "neutral".
Mattress maker Tempur Sealy's shares plunged 23.2 percent after the company forecast disappointing full-year sales.
Nike dropped nearly 2 percent after the shoemaker's future orders missed analysts' estimates for the third time in a row, attracting a slew of price targets by brokerages.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,477 to 1,335. On the Nasdaq, 1,414 issues fell and 1,149 advanced.
The S&P 500 index showed 12 new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 63 new highs and 22 new lows.
(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)