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* Facebook falls after antitrust lawsuit filed
* Lowe's jumps on $15 bln share buy-back plan
* DoorDash IPO opens at $182 per share
(Adds market breadth, volume data)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, Dec 9 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed lower on
Wednesday, retreating from record levels as investors grew
discouraged over the halting progress of economic stimulus
talks, while a drop in Facebook shares provided an additional
drag.
Investors are banking on a long-awaited relief package to
help buttress an economy battered from the COVID-19 pandemic and
related lockdowns that has led to millions of layoffs and
overwhelmed the healthcare system.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said lawmakers
were still looking for a path toward an agreement on COVID-19
aid, as the U.S. House of Representatives prepared to vote on a
one-week funding bill to provide more time for a deal.
"We have been in a significant tug-of-war between vaccine
news and virus news, and the vaccine news has won," said Art
Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New
York.
"The tie-breaker in that tug of war has certainly been the
potential for stimulus getting out of this Congress before they
head home for the holiday," he added.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 105.07 points,
or 0.35%, to 30,068.81, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 29.43 points, or
0.79%, to 3,672.82 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
243.82 points, or 1.94%, to 12,338.95.
Positive updates on the COVID-19 vaccine development along
with hopes for a fresh fiscal stimulus package have helped fuel
a rise in Wall Street's main indexes to all-time highs, with the
S&P 500 surpassing 3,700 points for the first time on Tuesday.
Facebook FB.O shares extended declines late in the session
before closing down 1.93% after the U.S. Federal Trade
Commission and nearly every U.S. state sued the social media
company on Wednesday, saying that it broke antitrust law and
should potentially be broken up. The news weighed on other mega
cap names such as Alphabet GOOGL.O and sent the NYSE FANG+ ETF
.NYFANG down 2.00%. With overall valuations now at extremely high levels, some
investors worry stocks could be more vulnerable to any bad news
such as unexpected setbacks in the roll-out of coronavirus
vaccines or delays in stimulus. Two allergic reactions were reported on the first day of the
rollout of the Pfizer PFE.N COVID-19 vaccine, the head of
Britain's medicine regulator said on Wednesday. DoorDash Inc DASH.N opened at $182 after pricing at $102
per share in its debut on Wednesday after the food delivery
startup raised $3.37 billion in one of the biggest U.S. stock
market launches so far in 2020. Shares closed up 85.79% at
$189.51. Home improvement chain Lowe's Cos Inc LOW.N jumped 5.88%
after announcing a new $15 billion share repurchase plan.
Drugmaker Eli Lilly LLY.N climbed 5.83% after flagging
positive data from a late-stage clinical trial for its
experimental drug designed to treat type 2 diabetes. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 12.00 billion shares, compared
with the 11.46 billion average for the full session over the
last 20 trading days.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.09-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.87-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 39 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 233 new highs and 13 new lows.