US STOCKS-S&P 500 dips on fears of virus resurgence in economic reopening

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* Consumer price index falls 0.8% in April
* Fauci comments on virus control worry investors
* BlackRock drops as top holder dumps stake
* GrubHub soars on report of takeover offer from Uber
* Indexes fall: Dow 0.57%, S&P 0.66%, Nasdaq 0.22%

(Updates to late afternoon, adds commentary, New York dateline
changes byline.)
By Sinéad Carew
New York, May 12 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 dipped in choppy
trading on Tuesday as the top U.S. infectious disease expert
warned Congress that a premature opening of the nation's economy
could lead to additional outbreaks of the novel coronavirus.
Investors were weighing the potential for a second wave of
infections against hopes for a reopening of the United States
economy by easing stay-at-home restrictions.
Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Congress that the virus,
which has already killed 80,000 Americans, was not yet under
control and that there would not likely be a treatment or
vaccine in place by late August or early September. And reports of new clusters of coronavirus infections in
countries such as China, South Korea and Germany where lockdowns
had been lifted appear to have added to worries. Optimism about an economic recovery and massive stimulus
measures have already helped the S&P 500 climb about 34% from
the March 23 low of the pandemic-driven selloff.
"It goes back to science versus the Federal Reserve. The
Federal Reserve has been supportive of the market ... What's
going to win here?," said Phil Blancato, chief executive of
Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management in New York.
"From the science view point if we open too quickly, we'll
just go back to where we were. But if we don't open at all, we
have this economic malaise."
Data showed that U.S. consumer prices dropped by the most
since the Great Recession in April, due to a plunge in demand
for gasoline and services including airline travel as people
stayed home during the coronavirus crisis. At 2:16PM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell
137.68 points, or 0.57%, to 24,084.31, the S&P 500 .SPX lost
19.31 points, or 0.66%, to 2,911.01 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 20.38 points, or 0.22%, to 9,171.96.
Among the S&P's 11 major sectors, real estate .SPLRCR was
the biggest percentage decliner.
Financial stocks .SPSY were one of the biggest laggards
with a drop of more than 1.4%.
Helping to drag down that sector lower was a 7% fall in
BlackRock Inc BLK.N , after its top shareholder PNC Financial
Services Group Inc PNC.N said it planned to sell its entire
22% stake in the world's largest asset manager. Online food delivery company GrubHub Inc GRUB.N surged 35%
after a person familiar with the matter said Uber Technologies
Inc UBER.N was in advanced talks to buy the company in an
all-stock deal. Tesla Inc TSLA.O rose 1.8% as President Donald Trump said
the electric carmaker should be allowed to reopen its vehicle
assembly plant in California. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.79-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.39-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted nine new 52-week highs and two new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 88 new highs and 21 new lows.