Stocks close lower as Facebook drags Nasdaq down

Stocks gave back early gains and closed lower Wednesday with tech stocks leading the decline.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 98.89 points, or 0.6% to 16,268.99, after climbing as high as 16,466.04 earlier. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 13.06 points, or 0.7% to 1,852.56 and the Nasdaq composite index tumbled 60.69 points, or 1.4%, to 4,173.58.

Facebook dragged the Nasdaq lower, plunging $4.51, or 6.9%, to $60.38, after agreeing to pay $2 billion for virtual reality company Oculus. It's Facebook's second big acquisition in as many months. Last month the social network announced that it would pay $19 billion for messaging startup WhatsApp.

King Digital Entertainment, the maker of the popular "Candy Crush Saga" game, slumped on its first day of trading. The company raised $499.5 million in an initial public offering that values the company at about $7.1 billion. The stock dropped $3.50, or 15.6%, to $19.00.

In energy markets, benchmark U.S. oil for May delivery was up$1.04 at $100.23 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 41 cents to settle at $99.19 on Tuesday.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.69% from 2.75% late Tuesday.

Earlier, stocks were bolstered in morning trading on signs that the manufacturing sector was improving. The Commerce Department says orders for durable goods increased 2.2% in February, following a 1.3% drop in January. The increase was the largest amount since November.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei 225 eked out a 0.4% gain to 14,477.16. China's Shanghai composite index declined 0.2% at 2,063.67.

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 index was basically unchanged at 6,605.30 and the DAX index in Germany jumped 1.2% to 9,448.58.

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 1,865.62. The Dow gained 0.6% to 16,367.88 while the Nasdaq composite edged up 0.2% to 4,234.27.

Contributing: The Associated Press