US STOCKS-Wall St slips after strong recent rally, as COVID cases mount

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* Novavax jumps on $1.6 bln govt award for COVID-19 vaccine
* Nasdaq notches fresh all-time high
* Walmart gains after report of membership program
* Indexes: Dow down 0.9%, S&P 500 off 0.5%, Nasdaq down 0.2%

(Updates to late afternoon)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
July 7 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks eased on Tuesday as investors
took profits a day after the S&P 500 logged its longest streak
of gains this year and as new U.S. coronavirus cases rose
further.
Large parts of the United States reported tens of thousands
of new coronavirus infections. New York expanded its travel
quarantine for visitors from three more states, while Florida's
greater Miami area rolled back its reopening.
The Nasdaq was outperforming the other two main indexes,
hovering between gains and losses but claiming another record
high. Boosting the Nasdaq were shares of technology heavyweights
Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and Apple Inc AAPL.O .
"I'm looking at this simply as a digestion day where
investors are sort of regrouping after yesterday's nice, upward
move, as well as the advance that we saw last week," said Sam
Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research in New
York.
He noted that the forward price-to-earnings ratio on the
market is now at a nearly 50% premium to the 20-year average,
based on his data.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq have risen in the past five sessions
despite an alarming rise in coronavirus cases in the United
States as a slew of upbeat data for June bolstered views that an
economic recovery is underway.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 242.32 points,
or 0.92%, to 26,044.71, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 16.99 points, or
0.53%, to 3,162.73 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
22.63 points, or 0.22%, to 10,411.03.
The S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 triggered a "golden cross"
pattern on Tuesday, when the 50-day moving average crossed above
the 200-day moving average, which could portend more gains for
stocks in the short term.
An index of bank stocks .SPXBK dropped 3.0%.
Travel-related stocks, which were among the hardest hit during
lockdowns, also fell. The S&P 1500 airlines index .SPLCOMAIR
shed 4.5%.
The benchmark S&P 500 and blue-chip Dow Industrials .DJI
have risen about 45% from their March lows and are now about 6%
and 11% from their record levels hit in February. The Nasdaq
.IXIC reclaimed its record high last month.
Walmart Inc WMT.N jumped 6.2% after a report that the
retailer is close to launching its membership program, a direct
competitor for Amazon.com's AMZN.O Prime service. Amazon
shares slipped 1.3%. Novavax Inc NVAX.O jumped 29% as the U.S. government
awarded $1.6 billion to the drugmaker to cover testing,
commercialization and manufacturing of a potential coronavirus
vaccine in the country. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by
a 2.26-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.97-to-1 ratio favored
decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 32 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 82 new highs and 14 new lows.