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* China delegates scrap U.S. farm visit, indexes fall
* Trade-sensitive tech sector drops
* Netflix drags after CEO comments
* Indexes end: Dow -0.59%, S&P 500 -0.49%, Nasdaq -0.80%
(New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments
to close)
By Noel Randewich
Sept 20 (Reuters) - Wall Street dropped on Friday, and also
finished the week lower, after a Chinese agriculture delegation
canceled a planned visit to Montana, dampening optimism about
U.S.-China trade talks.
The delegates, who had been set to visit U.S. farm states
next week, will return to China sooner than originally
scheduled, the Montana Farm Bureau said. Major stock indexes fell into negative territory after the
cancellation, which came as trade talks were held in Washington
and U.S. President Donald Trump said he wanted a complete trade
deal, not just an agreement for China to buy more U.S.
agricultural goods. Before the news, the S&P 500
and Dow industrials were in positive territory.
For months, Wall Street has bounced up and down with signs
of improvement or deterioration in trade talks, often based on
comments or tweets from Trump, a cycle investors have grown
accustomed to.
"In this case, it's a bit more concerning because it's China
making the decision, rather than Trump," said Willie Delwiche,
markets strategist at Baird in Milwaukee.
Trade optimism in recent weeks helped elevate the S&P 500
.SPX to just shy of its all-time high hit in July.
Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors fell on Friday. The S&P
500 consumer discretionary index .SPLRCD and tariff-sensitive
S&P 500 information technology index .SPLRCT declined the
most, down 1.2% and 1.1%, respectively. The Philadelphia chip
index .SOX slid 1.8%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 0.59% to end
the week at 26,934.46 points, while the S&P 500 .SPX lost
0.49% to 2,991.99.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 0.8% to 8,117.67.
For the week, the S&P 500 fell 0.52%, the Dow lost 1.05% and
the Nasdaq declined 0.72%.
Netflix tumbled 5.5% after CEO Reed Hastings made comments
underscoring growing costs and rising competition from Walt
Disney Co DIS.N , Apple Inc AAPL.O and other video streaming
services. Adding to Netflix's woes, Evercore ISI said recent data
painted an uncertain picture of the company's international
subscriber growth.
The S&P 500 healthcare index .SPXHC , which has been the
worst performing S&P sector this year, clocked the biggest gain
among the 11 major sectors, up 0.6%.
Merck & Co MRK.N gained 1.4% after the company's drugs
Pifeltro and Delstrigo received FDA approval for use in certain
adult patients with HIV-1 who are "virally suppressed."
Roku Inc ROKU.O slumped 19.2% after Pivotal Research
started coverage of its shares with a "sell" rating.
Xilinx Inc XLNX.O dropped 6.8% after Chief Financial
Officer Lorenzo Flores said he would step down, prompting Bank
of America Merrill to downgrade the chipmaker to "neutral."
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.01-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.03-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 22 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 47 new highs and 51 new lows.
With investors unwinding positions in futures and options
contracts before they expire, volume on U.S. exchanges was 9.8
billion shares, compared with a 7.1 billion-share average over
the last 20 trading days.