The U.S. stocks failed to hold early gains on Wednesday and ended lower for the third straight day, as fears about Europe continued to weigh on the market.

When the market closed, the Dow Jones industrial average suffered its ninth loss in the last ten days, falling 33.45 points, or 0.26 percent, to settle at a four-month low of 12,598.55.

The Standard & Poor's 500 was down 5.86 points, or 0.44 percent, to 1,324.80 and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 19.72 points, or 0. 68 percent, to 2,874.04. Both ended at the lowest level since Feb. 2.

Major indexes rebounded in morning trading before pulling back to negative areas, as investors took a short breather after recent losses.

Market sentiment was boosted a little after the U.S. government said housing starts rebounded in April from a five-month low.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve reported that industrial production rose 1.1 percent in April, the fastest growth in over a year.

However, concerns over Greece's political and economic future took the center stage in the afternoon.

The failure of Greek party leaders to form a coalition government after the election raised concerns that the eurozone country may have to exit the currency union.

Although German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she wanted Greece to stay in the eurozone, trying to comfort the nervous market, and the trend of bank deposit withdrawals in Greece was said to have slowed down on Wednesday, the fact that Greek banks suffered 700 million euros (about 890 million U.S. dollars) of withdrawals on Monday alone still scared the investors and caused risk aversion.

Besides, there was a report saying that the European Central Bank had stopped providing liquidity to some Greek banks as they were severely undercapitalized, which added to the fears about the country's fragile financial system.

Also on Wednesday, Facebook, the most popular social network company scheduled to begin trading in public market on Friday, once again drew spotlight by increasing its IPO shares by 84 million. The news, coming just one day after a raise of price range to 34 to 38 dollars per share from 28 to 35 dollars, indicated a strong desire of the investors to own a piece of the red hot company.

In other markets, the U.S. dollar rose in late New York trading on Wednesday despite the news that several Federal Reserve policymakers favored more stimulus measures.

The U.S. crude price dipped further on Wednesday and settled under 93 dollars a barrel for the first time since Nov. 2, as concerns over Greece lingered and U.S. crude inventories rose to the highest level since 1990.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery slipped 1.17 dollars, or 1. 24 percent, to settle at 92.81 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.