Wall street ends down for fifth day

NEW YORK: U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday and the S&P 500 put in a fifth day of losses, its longest losing streak since the end of 2012, on jitters funding for the federal government would run out and after a drop in shares of Wal-Mart Stores.

Investors worried about two looming Washington deadlines: before October 1 Congress needs to pass stop-gap funding for federal agencies and by October 17 it must raise the federal borrowing limit to avoid a debt default by the United States.