New Delhi, Dec. 17 -- Wall Street's key indices fell on Wednesday as the markets searched for clues on the outlook for interest rates.

At 11:39 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 105.49 points, or 0.22%, to 48,008.04, the S&P 500 lost 53.59 points, or 0.79%, to 6,746.67 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 292.03 points, or 1.26%, to 22,816.43.

At 9:34 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 169.09 points, or 0.35%, to 48,283.35, the S&P 500 gained 7.72 points, or 0.11%, to 6,807.98 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 18.17 points, or 0.08%, to 23,129.63.

December is traditionally a robust month for the stock market, but the recent rally has been tempered by two primary headwinds - lingering worries over lofty AI stocks valuati...