Gold prices steady ahead of Fed decision, Trump’s tariff deadline
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* Dollar General gains after raising FY profit forecast
* Nike rises on report of Goldman Sachs upgrade
* Kroger drops on quarterly sales, profit miss
* Indexes down: Dow 0.20%, S&P 500 0.18%, Nasdaq 0.19%
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By Shreyashi Sanyal
Dec 5 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes dropped on
Thursday, as investors stayed away from making riskier bets
owing to a lack of new developments in U.S.-China trade talks.
The three main stock indexes opened higher, extending gains
from the previous session, but lost steam in the first hour of
trading.
"There is no new news on the trade war and it's mostly
that," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and
derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.
"So unless we get a positive or negative story to push the
market one way or the other, we might as well be trading in this
range for a while."
Wall Street's main indexes snapped a three-day losing streak
in the previous session as headlines around trade suggested the
world's two largest economies were closer to agreeing how many
tariffs would be rolled back in a "phase one" trade deal.
However, if no agreement is reached soon, more tariffs on
Chinese goods will kick in from Dec. 15.
Seven of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were trading in the
red, while shares of tariff-sensitive chip companies eked out
gains, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor index .SOX up 0.3%.
At 10:18 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
down 55.23 points, or 0.20%, at 27,594.55, the S&P 500 .SPX
was down 5.45 points, or 0.18%, at 3,107.31 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 15.87 points, or 0.19%, at 8,550.81.
Investors also seemed to shrug off Wednesday's lackluster
readings on domestic services sector activity and private
payrolls growth as they await the Labor Department's non-farm
payrolls data due Friday.
Dollar General Corp DG.N gained 1% after the discount
store chain raised its full-year profit forecast. Nike Inc NKE.N shares climbed 1.5% after a report said
Goldman Sachs upgraded the sportswear maker's stock to "buy"
from "neutral". Kroger Co KR.N dropped 3% as it missed Wall Street
estimates for quarterly sales and profit, hurt by stiff
competition from industry stalwarts Walmart Inc WMT.N and
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O . Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.05-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.01-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded seven new 52-week highs and two new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 35 new highs and 32 new lows.