U. S. stocks fall amid COVID rise abroad

U. S. stock indexes erased much of their early losses and closed modestly lower Thursday, extending the Standard & Poor’s 500 index’s losing streak to a third day.

The S& P 500 fell 0.2% after having been down 1.4%. Technology, healthcare and communications stocks accounted for most of the selling, outweighing slight gains in banks and elsewhere in the market.

Wall Street has turned cautious this week amid a conf luence of worrisome trends for the economy, which is still hampered by the pandemic. Coronavirus infections are rising in Europe, prompting governments in France and Britain to impose new measures to contain the outbreak. European stock indexes fell broadly Thursday as traders pulled money out of riskier investments.

In the U. S., investor optimism that the Trump administration and Congress will soon reach a deal on another round of stimulus for the economy has waned. And the government said Thursday that the number of Americans seeking unemployment aid increased more than expected last week.

The S& P 500 fell 5.33 points to 3,483.34. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 19.80 points, or 0.1%, to 28,494.20. It had been down 332 points in the early going. The Nasdaq composite gave up 54.86 points, or 0.5%, to 11,713.87.

Smaller- company stocks fared better than the broader market. The Russell 2000 index of small- cap stocks bounced back from an early slide and rose 17.23 points, or 1.1%, to 1,638.88.

Stocks have been mostly climbing this month, but have pulled back this week as ongoing talks between Democrats and Republicans on an economic stimulus package have failed to deliver results.

The government’s latest weekly tally of unemployment claims underscores how the economy continues to be hobbled by the pandemic and recession that erupted seven months ago. The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose last week to 898,000, a historically high number that exceeds analysts’ forecasts.

The report follows recent data that have signaled a slowdown in hiring. The economy is still roughly 10.7 million jobs short of recovering all the 22 million jobs that were lost when the pandemic struck in early spring.

The 10- year Treasury yield held steady at 0.73%.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX lost 2.5%. The CAC 40 in France slid 2.1%. The FTSE 100 in London fell 1.7%.

In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.3% and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo sank 0.7%. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 2.1%.