Stocks ended slightly lower on Wall Street as a gangbuster two-day rally ran out of gas. The S&P 500 ended 0.2% lower Wednesday after briefly heading into the green late in the day. Its rally early this week was the biggest since the spring of 2020, spurred in part by hopes a softening economy may convince central banks to take it easier on interest rate hikes. Analysts have said such hopes may be premature. Other major U.S. indexes including the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq also lost ground. Oil prices rose after the OPEC+ cartel ordered production cuts.