Markets End the Day Lower

Stocks ended lower on Wall Street, giving back the modest gains they made the day before, the AP reports. Trading was mostly listless Thursday as investors waded through another round of company earnings news. Telecom sector stocks declined the most, while health care companies eked out small gains. Verizon lost 2.5% after reporting weak revenue and subscriber growth. EBay slumped 11% after releasing weak forecasts. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 40 points, or 0.2%, to 18,162. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 2 points, or 0.1%, to 2,141. The Nasdaq composite declined 4 points, or 0.1%, to 5,241. (More Dow Jones stories.)