US STOCKS-Wall St oscillates as vaccine hopes wrestle with shutdown threats

(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window)
* Pfizer gains on improved final vaccine trial data
* Industrials, Dow Transports on track for all-time closing
highs
* Target rises, Lowe's slides after results
* Indexes down: Dow 0.11%, S&P 0.16%, Nasdaq up 0.07%

(Updates to afternoon, changes dateline, byline)
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Wall Street see-sawed on
Wednesday, with economically-sensitive sectors outperforming as
investors weighed heartening vaccine development progress
against surging COVID-19 infections.
All three major U.S. indexes oscillated between red and
green through much of the session but were last moderately
lower, while small caps, industrials and transportation stocks
advanced.
S&P Industrials .SPLRCI and the Dow Transportation index
.DJT , both of which stand to benefit from economies reopening
after the global health crisis winds down, were on course for
all-time closing highs.
"The market is showing a willingness to support the
reopening plays, you see it in the Dow Transports and the
Russell 2000," said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at
Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana. "It's a closing
of the performance gap between value and growth."
"It's not dooming growth stocks, it's broadening out the
strength of the market," Carlson added. "I think that's going to
continue over the short term."
Pfizer Inc PFE.N and its German partner BioNTech BNTX.O
revealed a 95% success rate at the conclusion of their COVID-19
vaccine trial, just days after Moderna Inc MRNA.O announced a
similar rate of success in preliminary data from its vaccine
candidate. Market participants have been greeting vaccine developments
with guarded optimism as global new infections soar to record
levels, raising the possibility of increased restrictions as the
economy struggles to recover from recession. The United States
remains the country worst affected by the pandemic. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 33.74 points,
or 0.11%, to 29,749.61, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 5.78 points, or
0.16%, to 3,603.75 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 7.75
points, or 0.07%, to 11,891.59.
Among the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, industrials
enjoyed the largest percentage gains while healthcare .SPXHC
suffered the biggest loss.
Third-quarter reporting season has reached the final inning,
with 468 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of
those, 84.4% have surprised consensus to the upside, according
to Refinitiv.
Boeing Co BA.N initially provided the biggest lift to the
Dow after the Federal Aviation Commission green-lighted the
planemaker's grounded 737 MAX aircraft to resume flights, but
its shares have since reversed course. Target Corp TGT.N handily beat quarterly profit and sales
estimates, boosted by a 155% jump in comparable digital sales.
The retailer's stock rose 4.7%. Lowe's Companies Inc LOW.N dropped 6.4% after the home
improvement retailer forecast lower-than-expected holiday
quarter earnings as it beefs up its online business and doles
out employee bonuses to ease pandemic-related hardship.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.51-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.32-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 29 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 138 new highs and eight new lows.