Wall St slips as Yellen says Dec hike "live" possibility

By Abhiram Nandakumar

(Reuters) - Wall Street was lower on Wednesday morning after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said a rate hike in December was a "live" possibility, but not a certainty.

The Fed is "expecting the economy will continue to grow at a pace to return inflation to our target over the medium term," Yellen told Congress.

"If the incoming information supports that expectation ... December would be a live possibility" for a rate increase.

A raft of data on Wednesday suggested the economy was strong enough to support an interest rate hike.

The ADP National Employment Report showed the private sector added more jobs than expected last month. The report comes ahead of the crucial nonfarm payrolls data on Friday.

Other data on Wednesday showed that the U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply in September to its lowest level in seven months as exports rebounded. Separate data showed the U.S. services sector grew at a faster clip in October.

Traders quickly raised the odds of a December hike to 60 percent, from 52 percent before Yellen's comments, according to the CME Group's FedWatch program.

At 10:58 a.m. ET (1558 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was down 31.1 points, or 0.17 percent, at 17,887.05.

The S&P 500 was down 4.6 points, or 0.22 percent, at 2,105.19 and the Nasdaq composite index was down 8.06 points, or 0.16 percent, at 5,137.07.

Seven of the 10 major S&P sectors were lower, with the health sector's 0.9 percent fall leading the decliners.

Tesla's shares rose 9.8 percent to $228.68 after the company promised to speed up production of its electric cars.

Groupon slumped 29 percent to $2.86 after it forecast weak fourth-quarter and 2016 revenue.

Michael Kors rose 11.6 percent to $43.87 after the handbag maker reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

Motorola Solutions fell 9 percent to $64.95 and was the biggest decliner on the S&P 500 after its profit forecast falls short of expectations.

Time Warner fell 10 percent to $69.56 after the company forecast weak earnings growth. Disney was down 2.6 percent.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,516 to 1,342. On the Nasdaq, 1,305 issues rose and 1,275 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed 12 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 47 new highs and 29 new lows.

(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)