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* Home Depot, Kohl's drop on full-year forecast cuts
* Other retail stocks battered
* AT&T falls on brokerage downgrade
* Broadcom gains after Morgan Stanley upgrade
* Indexes: Dow down 0.40%, S&P off 0.09%, Nasdaq up 0.24%
(Updates to early afternoon)
By Arjun Panchadar
Nov 19 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones indexes
slipped from record levels on Tuesday as dour forecasts from
Home Depot and Kohl's eroded confidence on the strength of U.S.
consumer spending ahead of the all-important holiday shopping
season.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC rose 0.24%, supported by gains
in shares of Microsoft Corp MSFT.O , Facebook Inc FB.O and
Broadcom Inc AVGO.O .
Home Depot Inc HD.N fell 5.3% and was the top drag on the
benchmark S&P 500 and blue-chip Dow after the No.1 U.S. home
improvement chain cut its 2019 sales forecast for the second
time this year. Kohl's Corp KSS.N slumped 18.6% as the department store
operator slashed its annual profit forecast after falling short
of quarterly comparable sales and earnings estimates.
"At the moment the consumer sentiment is still strong but
that doesn't mean it is going to reflect in every retailer's
earnings," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and
derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.
Other retail stocks also fell, driving the S&P 500 retail
index .SPXRT down 1.06%. Investors will now watch out for
earnings reports from Lowe's Cos Inc LOW.N , Target Corp
TGT.N and Nordstrom Inc JWN.N among others later this week
for clarity on consumer spending.
Eight of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were lower, with the
consumer discretionary index's .SPLRCD 0.79% drop weighing the
most.
Expectations of a U.S.-China trade deal and a largely
better-than-expected third-quarter corporate earnings season
have fueled a Wall Street rally over the past few weeks, with
the S&P 500 setting new records almost every day.
"Markets have probably risen a little too far ... so it is
no surprise that we are seeing some pause here," Frederick said.
Market participants are, however, worried that an ongoing
U.S. impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump would weigh
on efforts to end the prolonged trade war.
At 1:05 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
down 112.12 points, or 0.40%, at 27,924.10, while the S&P 500
.SPX was down 2.89 points, or 0.09%, at 3,119.14.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 20.13 points, at
8,570.06.
Investors will look to make sense of the Fed's monetary
policy stance when the central bank releases on Wednesday
minutes from the latest policy meeting, in which it cut interest
rates for the third time this year.
Among other stocks, AT&T Inc T.N fell 4.3% as
MoffettNathanson downgraded the U.S. wireless carrier to "sell"
from "neutral". Chipmaker Broadcom rose 2.3% following a Morgan Stanley
upgrade to "overweight" from "equal-weight". Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.04-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.68-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 38 new 52-week highs and two new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 86 new highs and 91 new lows.