U.S. stock futures rise after U.S.-Japan trade deal; Tesla, Alphabet earnings due
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* Facebook falls after antitrust lawsuit filed
* Lowe's jumps on $15 bln share buy-back plan
* DoorDash IPO opens at $182 per share
* Dow down 0.49%, S&P 500 down 0.92%, Nasdaq down 1.92%
(Updates to mid-afternoon, changes byline)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, Dec 9 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks retreated on
Wednesday from record levels as investors grew discouraged over
the halting progress of economic stimulus talks, while a drop in
Facebook shares provided an additional drag.
Investors are banking on a long-awaited relief package to
help buttress an economy that has been battered from the
COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns that has led to millions
of layoffs and overwhelmed the healthcare system.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said lawmakers
were still looking for a path toward an agreement on COVID-19
aid, as the U.S. House of Representatives prepared to vote on a
one-week funding bill to provide more time for a deal.
"There is a lot of talk, they say they are making progress
and then they say they are so far apart, it is frustrating,"
said Tim Ghriskey, Chief Investment Strategist at Inverness
Counsel in New York, New York.
"The other thing is we've had this meteoric rise without any
real pullback so at some point we are going to see a pullback,
you need some digestion, certainly," he added.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 149.29 points,
or 0.49%, to 30,024.59, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 34.12 points, or
0.92%, to 3,668.13 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
241.61 points, or 1.92%, to 12,341.16.
Positive updates on the COVID-19 vaccine development along
with hopes for a fresh fiscal stimulus package have helped fuel
a rise in Wall Street's main indexes to all-time highs, with the
S&P 500 surpassing 3,700 points for the first time on Tuesday.
Facebook FB.O shares extended declines late in the
session, down 1.91% after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and
a big coalition of states sued the social media company on
Wednesday, saying it broke antitrust law. With overall valuations now at extremely high levels, some
investors worry stocks could be more vulnerable to any bad news
such as unexpected setbacks in the roll-out of coronavirus
vaccines or delays in stimulus. DoorDash Inc DASH.N opened at $182 after pricing at $102
per share in its debut on Wednesday after the food delivery
startup raised $3.37 billion in one of the biggest U.S. stock
market launches so far in 2020. Home improvement chain Lowe's Cos Inc LOW.N jumped 5.80%
after announcing a new $15 billion share repurchase plan.
Drugmaker Eli Lilly LLY.N advanced 4.99% after flagging
positive data for its experimental drug from a late-stage
diabetes clinical trial. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.33-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.06-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 38 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 223 new highs and 12 new lows.