Wall Street slips ahead of Trump's address to Congress

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

REUTERS - U.S. stocks dipped Tuesday morning, dragged down by financial and consumer discretionary shares, with investors awaiting President Donald Trump's first speech to a joint session of Congress.

Trump's promises of tax reform, infrastructure spending and simpler regulations have sparked a post-election rally that has propelled the main U.S. market indexes to record highs.

"What we're looking for tonight is just more meat on those bones," said Mark Spellman, portfolio manager at Alpine Funds in Purchase, New York.

"We've gotten these generalities and we're trying to figure out how things are going to be constructed," he said.

The address at 9:00 p.m. ET (0200 GMT) could touch on tax reforms, defense spending and his plans to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system.

 

But on Wall Street, financial and consumer discretionary stocks dropped, pulling down the major indexes.

Target fell 12.2 percent and was on track for its worst day since December 2008 after the retailer's full-year profit forecast missed estimates and the company said it would take a $1 billion hit to margins.

Also weighing on sentiment was data that showed U.S. economic growth slowed in the fourth quarter.

The dollar dropped 0.3 percent to 100.85 against a basket of major currencies, while prices of safe-haven gold edged up by a similar degree.

At 11:06 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.37 points, or flat, at 20,837.07, the S&P 500 was down 2.46 points, or 0.10 percent, at 2,367.29 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 17.85 points, or 0.3 percent, at 5,844.05.

Four of the 11 major S&P sectors were lower, while three rose. The rest were little changed.

Charles Schwab was the top drag on the financial sector after the company said it would reduce its ETF trade and online equity commissions, following similar cuts by Fidelity Investments. TD Ameritrade dropped 9.3 percent and was the top loser on the Nasdaq.

Priceline rose 5.9 percent to $1,728.87, following quarterly revenue that blew past estimates.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,639 to 1,149. On the Nasdaq, 1,934 issues fell and 769 advanced.

The S&P 500 index showed 43 new 52-week highs and four new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 88 new highs and 34 new lows.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)