U.S. stocks extended their three-day losing streak Tuesday, closing slightly lower after spending most of the day wavering between gains and losses.
Energy companies led the decline as the price of U.S. crude oil sank nearly 6 percent. It's now at about $28 a barrel.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 12.67 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,014.38. The Standard & Poor's 500 slipped 1.23 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,852.21. The Nasdaq composite lost 14.99 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,268.76.
The latest losses pulled the three indexes further down for the year. The Dow is off 8.1 percent, while the S&P 500 index is down 9.4 percent. The Nasdaq is off 14.8 percent.