US STOCKS-Nasdaq sets another closing high amid stock rotation

* Nasdaq ekes out new closing high; Dow, S&P fall
* Coty drops as demand for makeup products dwindles
* Take-Two tumbles as quarterly sales fall
* Indexes: Dow falls 0.03%, S&P slips 0.11%, Nasdaq gains
0.14%

(Recasts headline, first paragraph)
By Herbert Lash
Feb 9 (Reuters) - The Nasdaq scaled a new closing high on
Tuesday, but the broad market barely missed eking out a seventh
day of gains as investors rotated out of large-cap tech names
into other sectors expected to benefit from a proposed $1.9
trillion U.S. stimulus bill.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq hit an all-time high early in the
session on gains in Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O
and Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc AAPL. , which later turned lower
amid a shift in portfolio allocations.
The NYSE FANG+TM index .NYFANG , which includes Facebook
Inc FB.O , Netflix Inc NFLX.O and Tesla Inc TSLA.O , rose to
an all-time high.
With the number of U.S. COVID-19 cases falling and
expectations the stimulus package will be approved in Congress,
investors are hard-pressed to find significant negatives, said
Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush
Securities in Los Angeles.
"You're not seeing money coming out of the market and going
into cash," James said. "You're seeing money coming out of one
sector and being rotated into another sector to maintain an
overall long bias."
Largely upbeat corporate earnings, along with monetary and
fiscal support, powered the major U.S. stock indexes to
successive record highs the past six days. Both the Dow and S&P
narrowly missed closing higher, along with the Nasdaq.
"The backdrop is largely positive for stocks and I'm not
sure there could be a better backdrop for risk assets in the
near to intermediate term," said William Herrmann, co-founder
and managing partner at Wilshire Phoenix in New York City.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 9.93 points, or
0.03%, to 31,375.83 and the S&P 500 .SPX lost 4.36 points, or
0.11%, to 3,911.23. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 20.06
points, or 0.14%, to 14,007.70.
The energy sector .SPNY , among those that led the recent
rally, slipped 1.5%, while communication services .SPLRCL rose
0.2%.
Data last week showing slower-than-expected jobs growth in
the labor market underscored the need for more government aid to
blunt the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden
has said.
Democrats in the U.S. Senate continue to try to find a way
to include a minimum wage increase in a comprehensive COVID-19
relief bill they aim to advance in the coming weeks, Senate
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday. Toymaker Mattel Inc MAT.O rose 2.1%, while telephone
equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc CSCO.O slipped 0.9% ahead of
reporting earnings after market close.
Analysts forecast a fourth-quarter S&P earnings gain of
about 2.5%, a stark reversal from the 10.3% annual decline seen
at the beginning of the year, per Refinitiv.
Gucci lipstick maker Coty Inc COTY.N tumbled 15% as weak
demand for makeup products wiped millions off its quarterly
revenue. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc TTWO.O fell 6.1% after
the videogame publisher posted a drop in quarterly adjusted
sales and shied away from announcing any new big releases.
Bitcoin BTC=BTSP fast approached the $50,000-mark as the
afterglow of Elon Musk-led Tesla's TSLA.O investment in the
cryptocurrency had investors reckoning it may become a
mainstream asset class for both corporations and money managers.
Cryptocurrency miner Riot Blockchain RIOT.O and Marathon
Patent Group MARA.O extended sharp gains for the second day,
rising 22% and 17%, respectively, but Tesla's shares dropped
1.6%.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.54-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.45-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 40 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 428 new highs and six new lows.