Wall Street off lows as investors assess failed healthcare bill

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

REUTERS - U.S. stocks came off session lows late Monday morning as investors picked up beaten-down stocks after Wall Street tumbled following the withdrawal of President Donald Trump's healthcare reform bill.

However, the Dow is on track for an eight-day losing streak as the failed bill raised questions about Trump's ability to push through with his economic agenda.

Wall Street has rallied since November on bets that Trump's campaign promises of tax cuts and deregulation would sail through a Congress controlled by Republicans.

"This is the block in the Jenga game that at least topples part of the tower, but it's not to say that the game is over," said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Boston Private Wealth.

"I think a pullback to 2,273 on the S&P 500, which is the 100-day moving average, is likely but it will not stay there. I think people will use this as a buying opportunity."

At 11:05 a.m. ET (1505 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 114.27 points, or 0.55 percent, at 20,482.45, the S&P 500 was down 9.99 points, or 0.43 percent, at 2,333.99 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 18.86 points, or 0.32 percent, at 5,809.88.

Financial stocks, which were the biggest beneficiaries of the post-election rally, were the worst hit. Bank of America was down 1.8 percent and Morgan Stanley 3.7 percent.

Goldman Sachs fell 2.3 percent, shaving 35 points off the Dow. The S&P 500 financial index was down 1.2 percent, far underperforming the other nine losers among the major S&P sectors.

Shares of hospital operators, including HCA Holdings and Tenet Healthcare, rose on Monday, helping the S&P 500 healthcare sector to gain 0.2 percent.

The dollar, which had found favor on the possibility of tax cuts and higher infrastructure spending, hit its lowest since Nov. 11, while prices of safe-haven gold shot up to one-month highs.

DuPont was up 0.7 percent and was the top stock on the Dow Jones Industrial Average after European regulators cleared its proposed merger with Dow Chemical. Dow Chemical was up 0.6 percent.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,846 to 969. On the Nasdaq, 1,684 issues fell and 984 advanced.

The S&P 500 index showed seven 52-week highs and six lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 28 new highs and 43 new lows.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)