US STOCKS-Wall St falls as Apple, health shares drag, tariff deadline looms

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* Dec. 15 U.S.-China tariff deadline in focus
* ArQule shares soar after $2.7 billion Merck buyout deal
* 3M falls after Citigroup downgrade
* Fed policy decision due later in week
* Indexes down: Dow 0.38%, S&P 500 0.32%, Nasdaq 0.4%

(Updates to close of U.S. market)
By Lewis Krauskopf
Dec 9 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks pulled back on Monday from
near-record levels, as Apple and healthcare shares fell and
investors braced for a busy week of political and economic news,
including a potential turning point in the U.S.-China trade
dispute.
Wall Street is focused on Dec. 15, when the next round of
U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports is scheduled to take effect.
China said on Monday that it hoped to make a trade deal with the
United States as soon as possible. Investor hopes of at least an initial U.S.-China agreement
have helped push major stock indexes to record highs, with the
benchmark S&P 500 .SPX hovering about 0.5% below its all-time
high.
"The market is ... in a little bit of a wait-and-see mode,"
said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon
Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana.
"All eyes are still on what is going to happen with the
tariff situation come December 15th," Carlson said. "That's
still the biggest near-term factor that is probably going to
influence trading.”
Aside from improved investor sentiment over trade, the U.S.
Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts earlier this year and some
relief over corporate profits have helped drive the S&P 500 up
25% so far in 2019.
This week, investors also will focus on the Fed's policy
meeting, an election in the United Kingdom, and potential
agreement related to a North American trade pact.
On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell
105.46 points, or 0.38%, to 27,909.6, the S&P 500 .SPX lost
9.94 points, or 0.32%, to 3,135.97 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 34.70 points, or 0.4%, to 8,621.83.
A 1.4% decline in shares of Apple AAPL.O , which are often
sensitive to trade developments, was the biggest single stock
drag on all three indexes.
Most of the S&P 500 sectors were lower, with tech .SPLRCT
and healthcare .SPXHC weighing the most on the index.
In company news, Merck & Co MRK.N said it would buy cancer
drug developer ArQule Inc ARQL.O for $2.7 billion, causing
shares of ArQule to double in value. Merck shares dipped 0.1%.
Shares of industrial conglomerate 3M Co MMM.N dropped 1.0%
after Citigroup cut its rating on the stock to "neutral" from
"buy." Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.02-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.34-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 25 new 52-week highs and one new low; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 93 new highs and 59 new lows.
About 6.2 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges,
below the 6.6 billion-share daily average over the last 20
sessions.