Wall Street falls as drops in Amazon, Intel add to trade jitters

By Medha Singh

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks slipped on Thursday as oil prices slid, industrials dropped on worries over U.S.-China trade spat and Amazon led a decline in online retailers after the Supreme Court let states force the companies to collect sales tax.

Amazon dropped as much as 1.9 percent, before paring losses to trade down 1 percent. Wayfair, Overstock.com, Etsy and Ebay fell between 1.9 percent and 5.2 percent.

"Traders are very reactionary to Supreme Court news that could impact the balance sheet of online retailers," said Andrew Thrasher, portfolio manager with Financial Enhancement Group LLC in Indianapolis, Indiana.

"Right now all online retailers and tech stocks are getting thrown out with the bath water, so to speak, before we truly understand the implications (of the ruling)."

Another big drag was Intel, which retreated 2.4 percent after Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich resigned following a probe that revealed a past consensual relationship with an employee violated company policy.

Big U.S. manufacturers extended their slide after a state-controlled Chinese tabloid said Beijing could target members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average if President Donald Trump kept exacerbating tensions over trade.

Caterpillar and Boeing were both down 1.3 percent, with the S&P industrials' 0.9 percent slide weighing the most on the markets.

The 30-member Dow index gave up its year-to-date gains earlier this week as the trade rhetoric escalated and is on pace to extend a seven-session losing streak.

At 12:43 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 184.53 points, or 0.75 percent, at 24,473.27. The S&P 500 was down 16.01 points, or 0.58 percent, at 2,751.31 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 58.37 points, or 0.75 percent, to 7,723.14.

Seven of the 11 main S&P sectors were trading lower, with the S&P energy, the best performing sector in the last three months, down 1.7 percent as oil prices slipped after crude producers appeared to be nearing a deal to increase production at an OPEC meeting in Vienna.

The auto sector was hit by Germany's Daimler cutting its 2018 profit forecast due to the China-U.S. trade dispute.

Ford slipped 1.1 percent, General Motors dropped 2 percent and Tesla declined 2.9 percent. The S&P 500 automobiles and components index was down 1.5 percent.

Earnings were a bright spot, with Darden Restaurants surging 11.8 percent and grocer Kroger jumping 9 percent after issuing strong quarterly results.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 2.02-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 2.02-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 21 new 52-week highs and nine new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 96 new highs and 30 new lows.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and additional reporting by Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)