Wall Street stocks closed lower on Wednesday despite positive US economic data, as investors assessed company earnings including reports after the bell by major tech names Facebook-parent Meta and Microsoft.

The Dow Jones retreated 0.2 percent to 42,141, while the S&P 500 dipped 0.3 percent to 5,813.

The Nasdaq lost 0.6 percent to 18,607.

The market appears to be searching for a "next catalyst" to determine if it can keep moving higher, said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.

For now, he added, "Alphabet is doing very well on the back of its earnings report. But at the same time, you have some other earnings results that were not received quite as well."

Shares of Google-parent Alphabet closed 2.9 percent higher, a day after it reported solid third quarter results with revenue climbing 15 percent from a year ago to US$88.3 billion.

But other companies saw their share prices drop.

Shares in Caterpillar, which makes construction and mining equipment, lost 2.1 percent as it reported a drop in sales and lowered its revenue outlook.

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices fell 10.6 percent although its results came in slightly above expectations.

In after-hours trading, Meta shares fell more than two percent shortly after reporting profits that surpassed market expectations, while Microsoft gained 0.8 percent on strong growth in its cloud computing and artificial intelligence businesses.

The performance of Wall Street came despite the US economy expanding 2.8 percent in the third quarter according to government data.

This was a solid figure although a slight slowdown from the previous quarter. Data from payroll firm ADP also showed private sector hiring surged more than expected. (AFP)