US STOCKS-Wall St dips in choppy trade as investors look for stimulus

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* Weekly jobless claims dip below 800,000, but remain
elevated
* Tesla rises after fifth straight quarterly profit
* Coca-Cola up after results beat
* Indexes: Dow flat, S&P dips 0.15%, Nasdaq down 0.59%

(Updates to early afternoon)
By Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan
Oct 22 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes swung between
slight gains and losses on Thursday, as investors held out for
more fiscal stimulus against the backdrop of economic data
pointing to a slowing labor market recovery.
The number of Americans filing for state unemployment
benefits last week dropped more than expected to 787,000, but
remained stubbornly high as support from fiscal stimulus faded.
Trading on Wall Street this week has been dictated by a
flurry of reports related to progress in the stimulus talks. The
CBOE Market Volatility index .VIX rose for the eighth time in
nine sessions on Thursday.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said negotiators were making
progress in ongoing talks with the Trump administration for
another round of financial aid and legislation could be hammered
out "pretty soon". Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have been
negotiating a relief bill near the $2 trillion mark, a prospect
that faces opposition from Senate Republicans who have expressed
concern about the potential impact on an already ballooning
federal deficit.
"Investors are just waiting," said Sam Stovall, chief
investment strategist CFRA Research. "They are resigned to the
fact that we will not get stimulus before the election."
All eyes will be on the final presidential debate on
Thursday night, where Trump will attempt to change the
trajectory of the race that Democratic challenger Joe Biden
seems to be leading, according to national polls. Energy .SPNY and financials .SPNY rose 2.7% and 1.4%,
the steepest percentage gainers among the major S&P sectors.
At 12:39 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
fell 13.58 points or 0.05% to 28,197.24, the S&P 500 .SPX lost
4.81 points, or 0.15% to 3,430.75 and the Nasdaq Composite index
.IXIC shed 67.46 points or 0.59% to 11,417.23.
Meanwhile, about a fifth of S&P 500 companies have reported
third-quarter results of which 84.1% beat earnings estimates,
according to IBES Refinitiv data.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O climbed 1.5% after the electric-car maker
reported its fifth consecutive quarterly profit on record
revenue of $8.8 billion. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc CMG.N fell 5.2% as it posted a
drop in quarterly profit, hurt by higher beef prices, delivery
costs and coronavirus-related expenses. Among blue-chip companies, Coca-Cola Co KO.N gained 1% as
it beat quarterly results expectations, while chemicals maker
Dow Inc DOW.N fell 0.8% even as it surpassed quarterly profit
estimates. Advancing issues nearly matched decliners on the NYSE and on
Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 15 new 52-week highs and one new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 36 new highs and 21 new lows.