Bank CEOs meet with Trump to discuss Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - Bloomberg
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* September consumer confidence data weaker than expected
* Retailers decline
* Indexes down: Dow 0.5%, S&P 0.8%, Nasdaq 1.5%
(New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments
to close)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell in volatile
trade on Tuesday, giving the S&P 500 its biggest daily drop in a
month, as a push for the impeachment of U.S. President Donald
Trump gained momentum among Democrats in the U.S. Congress.
Further pressuring Wall Street, disappointing consumer
confidence data underscored concerns over the economic impact of
a prolonged U.S.-China trade war. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will announce a formal
impeachment inquiry of Trump, a Republican, later on Tuesday,
according to several media reports.
Support among Democrats for the start of impeachment
proceedings increased after news that Trump may have sought
foreign help in smearing a political rival.
Stocks briefly pared losses after Trump, in a tweet, said
his administration would release a complete transcript of a call
with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that is at the
center of the controversy.
He said the released transcript would show the call was
"totally appropriate" and that he had not pressured Zelenskiy to
investigate Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and that
there had been no quid pro quo for U.S. aid in exchange for a
probe. "What all of that combined is going to do is ensure there is
going to be elevated (market) volatility in both directions in
the next few days," said Michael James, managing director of
equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.
The Cboe volatility index .VIX jumped. The S&P 500 retail
index .SPXRT fell 1.4%, while Amazon.com AMZN.O declined
2.4% and was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 142.22 points,
or 0.53%, to 26,807.77, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 25.18 points, or
0.84%, to 2,966.6 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
118.84 points, or 1.46%, to 7,993.63.
Wall Street's major indexes lost their footing early, when
Trump took a harsh tone about China's trade practices.
Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management
in Chicago, said the trade war was likely a bigger issue than
possible impeachment proceedings for the market right now.
"I don't know how strong the case is for impeachment, so I
don't know what will happen with that. We react first and think
later," he said.
Nike Inc NKE.N slipped 0.6%, ahead of the world's largest
sportswear maker's first-quarter results after the bell.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
2.20-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.43-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 31 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 36 new highs and 96 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.68 billion shares, compared
to the 7.2 billion average for the full session over the last 20
trading days.