Wall Street weighed down by weak earnings, Comey sacking

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

REUTERS - U.S. stocks slipped on Wednesday, weighed down by a string of weak corporate earnings, while investors turned cautious after President Donald Trump fired his FBI chief.

Trump said he fired FBI Director James Comey, who had been leading an investigation into his 2016 presidential campaign's possible collusion with Russia, over his handling of an email scandal involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Analysts say the development could distract Trump from pursuing his promises, including the highly anticipated reform of the U.S. tax code.

"I think the market is probably going to work past the Comey news unless it spirals into a bigger issue where it starts to threaten the Trump agenda," Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Boston Private Wealth.

Demand for safe-haven assets like gold, bonds and the Japanese yen rose, while the dollar fell.

At 10:59 a.m. ET (1459 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 34.4 points, or 0.16 percent, at 20,941.38, the S&P 500 was down 1.67 points, or 0.07 percent, at 2,395.25 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 14.35 points, or 0.23 percent, at 6,106.23.

Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were lower, with healthcare and consumer discretionary sectors dropping the most. Energy was up 1.4 percent on the back of higher oil prices.

Disney fell 2.5 percent and was the top drag on the Dow and the S&P 500 after the media company reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue and a decline in the number of ESPN subscribers.

Allergan dropped 3.2 percent to $230.75 after the Botox-maker posted a quarterly loss as it took a write down on the value of its stake in Teva Pharmaceutical.

Priceline tumbled 5 percent to $1,815 after the travel website operator forecast current-quarter earnings below analysts' expectations.

One bright spot was Nvidia, which surged 14 percent after the chipmaker reported a better-than-expected jump in quarterly revenue. Shares of rival AMD also rose.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,599 to 1,177. On the Nasdaq, 1,483 issues fell and 1,130 advanced.

The S&P 500 index showed 19 52-week highs and one low, while the Nasdaq recorded 85 highs and 46 lows.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)