(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* China warns of counter measures against U.S. law
* Retail shares in focus as Black Friday kicks off
* U.S. stock markets to shut at 1 p.m. ET
* Indexes off: Dow 0.34%, S&P 0.27%, Nasdaq 0.25%
(Changes comment, updates market action)
By Arjun Panchadar
Nov 29 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks slipped on Friday in a
post-holiday shortened session as a U.S.-China discord over Hong
Kong reignited trade tensions and retail stocks dipped on signs
of a tepid start to in-store Black Friday sales.
China on Thursday threatened to retaliate against a U.S. law
backing pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. The measures
could include barring drafters of the legislation from mainland
China, Hong Kong and Macau, the editor of China's state-backed
Global Times tabloid said in a tweet. The trade-sensitive Philadelphia Semiconductor index .SOX
fell as much as 0.8% and was on track for its worst day in a
week.
The diplomatic clash also knocked Wall Street's main indexes
off record highs. They had closed at all-time highs in every
session so far this week on upbeat domestic data and hopes of an
imminent "phase one" trade deal.
"The fact that this is a half day with the markets being at
all-time highs is reason to give investors a bit of a pause,"
said Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist, at SlateStone
Wealth LLC in New York.
Sentiment was also dulled by reports of spot checks on
retailers around the country, which showed fewer people lining
up outside stores at the start of Black Friday, suggesting a
surge in online buying may have taken the shine off America's
biggest shopping day. The S&P 500 retail sector .SPXRT fell 0.7%, with Kohl's
Corp KSS.N dropping 2.3%. But top retailers Walmart Inc
WMT.N and Best Buy Co Inc BBY.N were up between 0.3% and
0.7%.
At 11:48 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
down 95.45 points, or 0.34%, at 28,068.55, while the S&P 500
.SPX was down 8.63 points, or 0.27%, at 3,145. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 21.73 points, or 0.25%, at 8,683.45.
Shares of Tech Data Corp TECD.O jumped 12.3% as private
equity firm Apollo Global Management APO.N raised its bid for
the U.S. information technology equipment distributor to about
$5.14 billion. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.58-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and for a 1.18-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P
index recorded 15 new 52-week highs and one new low, while the
Nasdaq recorded 66 new highs and 26 new lows.