While you were sleeping: UPDATED Stocks fall along with US dollar, oil

The US dollar fell, while Wall Street slid with the price of oil, as investors tried to gauge the timing of a Federal Reserve interest rate increase.

Fed vice-chairman Stanley Fischer warned that low interest rates may threaten financial stability but said "it's not that simple" to raise rates.

A New York Fed report showed its Empire State Index unexpectedly fell, declining to a reading of -6.8 this month, the lowest since May and down from a -2 reading in September.

"People are trying to figure out what the Fed is going to do," Santa Fe-based Thornburg Investment Management head of equity trading Thomas Garcia told Bloomberg.

Wall Street declined. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 51.98 points, or 0.3%, to 18,086.40. The Nasdaq Composite Index also fell 0.3% to 5199.82, as did the Standard & Poor's 500 Index to 2126.50.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn told CNBC he is "more and more concerned" about the stock market and that many S&P 500 companies are "way overvalued."

In the Dow, declines McDonald's Merck’s shares, down 1.4% and 1.2% respectively, outweighed advances by Johnson & Johnson and Cisco shares, each 0.5 % stronger.

Constellation sells Canadian business
Constellation Brands shares fell after it agreed to sell its Canadian wine business to Canada's Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan in a deal valued at about $C1.03 billion ($US785 million).

Constellation Brands expects to receive cash proceeds, net of repayment of outstanding debt, of about $C750 million, the company says.

"In April, we announced plans to explore an initial public offering for a portion of our Canadian wine business as part of our strategy to focus on premium, high margin and high growth brands," Constellation Brands chief executive Rob Sands says.

"We seized the opportunity to sell the entire business in a value-enhancing transaction when it presented itself."

Constellation Brands shares traded 1.5% weaker in New York.

Bucking the trend, Supervalu shares jumped after the US supermarket operator said it agreed to sell its Save-A-Lot business for $US1.365 billion in cash to Canada's Onex Corporation.

The sale is expected to be completed by January 31 next year.

"The sale of Save-A-Lot is another important step in Supervalu's transformation," chief executive Mark Gross says.

"It provides us with a stronger balance sheet that will allow us to further build on our core strengths and growth opportunities."

Supervalu shares traded 5.8% higher at 1.07pm in New York. Onex shares traded 0.2% higher in Toronto at 1.03pm.

US crude fell 0.8% to $US49.94 a barrel.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index ended the day with a drop of 0.7 %. The UK's FTSE 100 Index slid 0.9 %, Germany's DAX Index fell 0.7 % and France's CAC 40 Index retreated 0.5 %.

(BusinessDesk)