Wednesday’s early afternoon trade: Main indexes dip in volatile trading

NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes dipped in volatile trading on Wednesday as investors closely tracked ongoing negotiations in Washington related to the coronavirus stimulus package.

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hoped to resolve the “appropriations piece” of the aid bill later in the day.

Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are also scheduled to hammer out details of the relief package, that could be in the range of $2.2 trillion, later on Wednesday.

At 12:35 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 81.09 points, or 0.29%, at 28,227.70, the S&P 500 was down 5.85 points, or 0.17%, at 3,437.27. The Nasdaq Composite was down 21.68 points, or 0.19%, at 11,494.81.

Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors were lower, with consumer discretionary stocks weighing the most on S&P 500.

Snap Inc surged 33.1% after the Snapchat messaging app owner beat user growth and revenue forecasts, as more people signed up to chat with friends and family during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The results boosted the shares of social media companies Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc, which were up 4.9% and 8.1%, while image sharing company Pinterest Inc gained 9.6%.

Gains in Facebook and a 2.7% rise for Google-parent Alphabet Inc lifted the communication services sector by 1.5%.