Wall Street mixed after Trump fires FBI head

By Noel Randewich

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks wavered on Wednesday as investors digested a batch of weak corporate earnings and President Donald Trump's dismissal of his FBI chief.

Trump said he fired Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey over his handling of an email scandal involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

However, Comey had also been leading an investigation into whether Trump's 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia.

Wall Street viewed the turmoil in Washington as the latest of several distractions from Trump's promises to cut taxes and boost spending on infrastructure. The stock market has surged to record highs under Trump due to expectations he will stimulate the economy and boost corporate earnings.

 

"We were not expecting to see a quick succession of moving toward the administration's agenda, and this certainly is not reducing that contentious environment," said Eric Wiegand, a New York-based senior portfolio manager at the Private Client Reserve at U.S. Bank.

At 1:59 p.m. (1759 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> was down 0.16 percent to 20,942.13 points while the S&P 500 <.SPX> had gained or 0.06 percent to 2,398.44.

The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 0.12 percent, to 6,127.98.

Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors rose, with energy <.SPNY> jumping 1.1 percent, helped by a 3.5-percent jump in oil prices . Consumer discretionary <.SPLRCD> lost 0.41 percent and industrials <.SPLRCI> dropped 0.43 percent. Nvidia surged 17 percent after the chipmaker reported a better-than-expected jump in quarterly revenue. Shares of rival AMD rose 5 percent.

Disney fell 2.6 percent and was the top drag on the Dow after the media company reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue and a decline in the number of ESPN subscribers.

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

Priceline tumbled 4.8 percent after the travel website operator forecast current-quarter earnings below analysts' expectations.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.82-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.30-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 25 new 52-week highs and two new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 114 new highs and 62 new lows.

(Additional reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru and Rodrigo Campos in New York; Editing by James Dalgleish)