Wall Street slightly lower as energy and retail stocks sag

By Abhiram Nandakumar

REUTERS - Wall Street was slightly lower in choppy trading on Wednesday, as a drop in oil prices weighed on energy stocks and disappointing results from Macy's pummeled retailers.

Oil prices slipped more than 2 percent after data showed an increase in U.S. stockpiles.

The S&P energy sector fell 1.41 percent, leading the six decliners among the 10 major S&P sectors. Exxon and Chevron dropped about 1 percent. [O/R]

Macy's fell as much as 14.7 percent to $40.10 after the company reported a 3.6 percent drop in quarterly same-store sales and slashed its full-year sales and profit forecasts. Analysts had expected a rise in same-store sales.

Shares of other retailers also fell. JC Penney dropped as much as 5 percent to $8.24 despite a 6.4 percent rise in same-store sales. Nordstrom, Dillard's and Kohl's dropped between 5 and 7 percent.

Alibaba's shares - which up to Tuesday had risen more than 40 percent since Sept. 29 - slipped 3 percent to $79 even though the e-commerce giant said sales in its Singles' Day online shopping event on Wednesday hit a record $14.32 billion. Sales in the event last year totaled $9.3 billion.

U.S. bond markets are closed on Wednesday for Veteran's Day, adding to the muted trading.

At 11:27 a.m. ET (1627 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was down 37.65 points, or 0.21 percent, at 17,720.56, the S&P 500 was down 3.96 points, or 0.19 percent, at 2,077.76 and the Nasdaq Composite index was down 5.36 points, or 0.11 percent, at 5,077.89.

Apache Corp fell 5.9 percent to $50.16 after Anadarko Petroleum confirmed its offer to buy the company had been rejected. Anadarko was down 2.4 percent at $61.91.

Horizon Pharma slumped 19 percent to $18.03 after prescription drug plan manager Express Scripts removed a pharmacy connected to Horizon from its network.

Boston Scientific fell 3.3 percent to $18.18 after the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed limited reimbursement coverage for a type of heart device, including the company's recently approved Watchman device.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,738 to 1,145. On the Nasdaq, 1,543 issues fell and 1,034 advanced.

The S&P 500 index showed nine new 52-week highs and 10 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 71 new highs and 80 new lows.

(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr)