REFILE-US STOCKS-Wall Street closes lower as shutdown worries loom

(Adds dropped words "and" in paragraph 18)
* Tesla jumps on pending S&P 500 inclusion
* Walmart, Home Depot, Kohl's beat earnings expectations
* Walgreen, CVS hammered by Amazon's online pharmacy foray
* Indexes down: Dow 0.56%, S&P 0.48%, Nasdaq 0.21%

By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, Nov 17 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks retreated from
record closing highs on Tuesday, ending lower as surging
COVID-19 cases, the growing threat of a fresh round of economic
lockdowns and weak retail sales data dampened the euphoria
caused by potential vaccine breakthroughs.
The sell-off was a reversal of Monday's rally, in which the
blue-chip Dow reached its first record closing high since before
the pandemic.
The Nasdaq's loss was capped by surging Tesla Inc TSLA.O
shares, and small cap stocks outperformed, with the Russell 2000
.RUT reaching a new record closing high.
Monday's rally was prompted by Moderna Inc's MRNA.O
announcement that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate appears to be
94.5% effective in preventing infection. But a recent surge in new coronavirus cases across the
United States has led several governors to enact new
restrictions to prevent the disease from spiraling out of
control. "It's going to be the vaccine versus the virus,
flip-flopping back and forth until we get to the point where the
vaccine is rolled out," said Joseph Sroka, chief investment
officer at NovaPoint in Atlanta. "It's like standing on the edge
of a valley - I can look down and see the rising case loads or I
can look across to the vaccine."
The retail sales report released by the Commerce Department
showed spending decelerating as the holiday shopping season
approaches amid a lack of forthcoming fiscal relief from
Washington. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 167.09 points,
or 0.56%, to 29,783.35, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 17.38 points, or
0.48%, to 3,609.53 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
24.79 points, or 0.21%, to 11,899.34.
Among 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, only energy .SPNY
and real estate .SPLRCR closed in the black, with utilities
.SPLRCU and healthcare stocks .SPXHC faring the worst.
Third-quarter earnings season is in its final stretch, with
465 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those,
84.5% have beaten consensus estimates, according to Refinitiv
data.
This week brings quarterly results from series of
high-profile retailers.
Walmart Inc WMT.N beat profit expectations and posted a
bigger-than-expected 6.4% annual growth in same-store sales.

Home improvement retailer Home Depot Inc HD.N also beat
quarterly profit and sales estimates as consumers used
stay-at-home restrictions to focus on DIY home projects.
Still, Walmart's and Home Depot's stocks fell 2.0% and 2.5%,
respectively.
But Kohl's Corp KSS.N jumped 11.6% after the department
store chain posted a surprise quarterly profit and forecast
strong margins for the upcoming holiday season.
Target Corp TGT.N and Lowe's Companies Inc LOW.N results
are expected before the bell on Wednesday.
Shares of Tesla jumped 8.2% after S&P Dow Jones Indices
announced it would add the electric automaker to the S&P 500 on
Dec. 21. Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O launched an online pharmacy in the
United States, sending shares of rival drug retailers Walgreens
Boots Alliance Inc WBA.O and CVS Health Corp CVS.N down 9.6%
and 8.6%, respectively.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.30-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.07-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 27 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 119 new highs and 10 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.46 billion shares, compared
with the 10.30 billion average over the last 20 trading days.