US STOCKS-Wall St futures dip as Mnuchin pulls plug on lending programs

(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window)
* Weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rise
* U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations jump by 50%
* Indexes up: Dow 0.15%, S&P 0.39%, Nasdaq 0.87%

(Recasts with market reaction to Mnuchin move)
By Stephen Culp
Nov 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stock market futures dropped late on
Thursday after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pulled the plug
on some of the Federal Reserve' pandemic emergency lending
programs.
S&P 500 emini futures EScv1 dropped 0.75% after Mnuchin
asked the central bank to return money earmarked under the March
pandemic relief act for emergency lending to businesses,
nonprofits and local governments, marking an end on Dec. 31 to
most of the crisis-response programs the Federal Reserve has
deemed vital to keeping the economy stable. The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury US10YT=RR also
slipped, suggesting a flight to safety among investors.
"If you don't have these programs, in general it's a
risk-off situation for the markets. They have not been much used
but they were there as a backstop and even the thought of them
was seen as a safety net,” said Andy Richman, director of fixed
income strategies at Sterling Capital Management in Jupiter,
Florida.
Earlier, U.S. stocks ended in positive territory after fresh
stimulus hopes buoyed investor sentiment in a session fraught
with worries over mounting shutdowns and layoffs linked to
spiraling COVID-19 infection rates.
All three major stock indexes got a healthy boost after
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell had agreed to revive talks to craft a new fiscal
relief package.
"We've seen this playbook before, where investors flock to
the safety of tech and growth when the economy shows signs of
slowing down," said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at
LPL Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina. "But everything
changes now that there's hope of the next stimulus plan."
"Clearly markets are bouncing on that optimism."
Even so, spiraling COVID-19 infection rates turned investors
toward market-leading growth stocks that have shown resiliency
to the pandemic.
The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index .SOX , which
thrived throughout the health crisis, handily outperformed the
broader market, rising 1.6%.
"In a COVID world, semis are a safer play as they're not
impacted as much due to shutdowns," Detrick added.
The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for
unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, the data
painting a grim picture of increasingly elevated layoffs as
spiking coronavirus cases and subsequent shutdowns continue to
hobble the labor market.
Record infection numbers have caused COVID hospitalizations
to soar by 50% and have prompted schools and businesses to close
once again, thwarting the recovery of the world's largest
economy from the deepest recession since the Great Depression.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 44.81 points,
or 0.15%, to 29,483.23, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 14.08 points,
or 0.39%, to 3,581.87 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
103.11 points, or 0.87%, to 11,904.71.
Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, energy .SPNY and
tech shares .SPLRCT gained the most, while utilities .SPLRCU
and healthcare .SPXHC were the only percentage losers.
Third-quarter reporting season is nearing the finish line,
with 472 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of
those, 84.5% have beaten consensus, according to Refinitiv data.
Macy's Inc M.N reported a 20% plunge in quarterly
same-store sales and the department store forecast a tough
holiday season. Chipmaker Nvidia Corp NVDA.O forecast a slight dip in data
center chip sales but the company beat quarterly revenue
expectations. L Brands Inc LB.N surged 17.7% after posting
better-than-expected quarterly results and a 56% jump in
same-store sales. Tesla Inc TSLA.O shares rose for the third straight
session to touch a record high, riding the wave of its pending
inclusion in the S&P 500, announced on Monday. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.77-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.80-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted seven new 52-week highs and no new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 87 new highs and 10 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.94 billion shares, compared
with the 10.55 billion average over the last 20 trading days.