US STOCKS-Stocks edge lower on Biden warning about China

* Payment cos jump as bitcoin hits all-time highs
* Cannabis shares reverse premarket gains
* Weekly jobless claims edge down

(Adds remarks, byline, dateline)
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, Feb 11 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks slid on Thursday
after U.S. President Joe Biden said China was poised to "eat our
lunch," a warning that raised concerns for a market hovering
near record highs on hopes of more stimulus, strong earnings and
an improving outlook for the pandemic.
A 1.7% rise in PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL.O helped
Information Technology .SPLCRT gain 0.5%, the only sector on
the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to rise, with all others declining.
Biden told a group of U.S. senators in a meeting to discuss
the need to upgrade U.S. infrastructure that the United States
must raise its game in the face of the challenge from China.
The warning about China and Democrat plans to include
raising the minimum wage to $15 in a $1.9 trillion stimulus
package showed headwinds could be on the rise, said Ed Moya,
senior market analyst at OANDA in New York.
"Markets are starting to get a little bit nervous over the
relations between the West and China," Moya said.
Biden's first call late Wednesday with China's President Xi
Jinping "resurfaced all of the difficulties that we're going to
face this year in addition to the pandemic," he said.
In addition, the Democrats are not falling in line as far as
where they stand on the minimum wage, he said. "This is dragging
out stimulus talks."
Mastercard rose after the credit-card company said it was
planning to offer support for some cryptocurrencies on its
network this year, joining a string of big-ticket firms that
have pledged similar support. Bank of New York Mellon BK.N rose about 1.0% after saying
it had formed a new unit to help clients hold, transfer and
issue digital assets, sending Bitcoin BTC=BTSP up over 8% to
an all-time high of $48,481. The number of Americans filing new applications for
unemployment benefits were 793,000 last week, compared to
812,000 in the prior week, but they are well below the record
6.867 million reported last March when the pandemic hit the
United States. Wall Street's main indexes have hit record highs recently on
prospects of the $1.9 trillion relief bill that aims to jump
start the U.S. economy, while a largely better-than-expected
earnings season also has bolstered investors' sentiment.
Analysts now expect fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500
firms to grow 3%, versus forecast of a 10.3% drop at the
beginning of January, per Refinitiv data.
"There is room for the market to take a breather but usually
there is some sort of catalyst that gets that going," said Tom
Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments in
Atlanta.
By 2:29PM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell
107.87 points, or 0.34%, to 31,329.93, the S&P 500 .SPX lost
7.03 points, or 0.18%, to 3,902.85 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 8.75 points, or 0.06%, to 13,963.79.
The tech sector .SPLRCT and semiconductors .SOX hit
record highs, while economy-linked energy .SPNY and
industrials .SPLRCI took a back seat after being in the
spotlight this year.
U.S.-listed shares of cannabis companies including Tilray
TLRY.O and Aphria APHA.O reversed premarket gains to drop
42% and 20% after the sector caught the attention of
Reddit-inspired retail investors this week. Walt Disney Co DIS.N was nearly flat ahead of its results
after market close. Pinterest Inc PINS.N rose 7.1% after a report said
Microsoft Corp MSFT.O approached the image-sharing company in
recent months about a potential buyout. The negotiations were,
however, currently not active, according to the report.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.46-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.61-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 38 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 265 new highs and seven new lows.