US STOCKS-Wall St dips as whistleblower report adds to investor caution

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* Trump sought foreign meddling in 2020 election -report
* Facebook dips on report of antitrust investigation
* Indexes down: Dow 0.3%, S&P 0.2%, Nasdaq 0.6%

(Updates to close)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Sept 26 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks slipped on
Thursday as the release of a whistleblower report tied to the
Democrats' impeachment move against President Donald Trump kept
uncertainty high, while trade comments from China's top diplomat
helped to limit losses.
The S&P 500 briefly turned higher late in the session after
China's state councillor and foreign minister said China was
willing to buy more U.S. products. Wang Yi, in response to
questions from Reuters, said the Trump administration had shown
goodwill by waiving tariffs on many Chinese
products. Earlier in the day, the released whistleblower report
alleged that Trump not only abused his office in attempting to
solicit foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. election, but that
the White House also tried to "lock down" evidence about that
conduct. The report is seen as central to the Democrats'
impeachment inquiry. The impeachment push has added to recent market volatility.
For the market, "whether it turns into something more comes
down to how consumers respond. Without that, it's likely short-
term volatility and not much else," said Willie Delwiche,
investment strategist at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.
Facebook Inc FB.O was among the biggest drags on the S&P
500, dropping 1.5% after a person familiar with the matter told
Reuters that the U.S. Justice Department will open an antitrust
investigation of the social media company. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 79.59 points,
or 0.3%, to 26,891.12, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 7.25 points, or
0.24%, to 2,977.62 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
46.72 points, or 0.58%, to 8,030.66.
Investors also digested a Bloomberg report that the United
States is unlikely to extend a waiver allowing American firms to
supply China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. The S&P energy sector .SPNY was down 1.3%, while defensive
sectors, including utilities .SPLRCU , were among the
best-performing groups.
Shares of fitness startup Peloton Interactive Inc PTON.O
fell 11.2% in their market debut. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.27-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.11-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 33 new 52-week highs and 5 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 29 new highs and 112 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.11 billion shares, compared
with the 7.2 billion average for the full session over the last
20 trading days.