Wall Street stocks finished lower on Wednesday despite positive movement in the US-China trade conflict and a benign US inflation report.

Following two days of talks in London, top US and Chinese negotiators announced a "framework" agreement late on Tuesday, but stocks fell in what Briefing.com described as a "sell the news" response to a breakthrough that had been largely priced in.

The S&P 500, which rose the last three days, finished down 0.3 percent at 6,022.

The Dow Jones was flat at 42,865, while the Nasdaq dropped 0.5 percent to 19,615.

Besides trade, markets digested key inflation data.

US consumer prices rose 2.4 percent compared with a year ago, up from a 2.3 percent reading for the prior month, a modest uptick that analysts said still did not fully reflect the impact of Trump's tariffs.

Sam Stovall of CFRA Research described Wednesday's session as a "rollercoaster," positing that the negative finale may reflect unease at reports Trump could appoint a "shadow" Federal Reserve Chair to try to influence monetary policy without firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Stovall also highlighted the possibility that "the market is overbought and due for some sort of digestion of gains."

Among those falling, large tech names including Amazon, Facebook parent Meta and Apple lost more than one percent. (AFP)