Wednesday’s early afternoon trade: Indexes fall; Nike hits record high, Tesla tumbles

NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes fell on Wednesday as data showing a slowdown in domestic business activity and a stalemate in Congress over more fiscal stimulus raised fears of a choppy economic recovery from a pandemic-driven recession.

Ten of the 11 major S&P indexes were down, with energy - already the worst performing sector this year - leading declines.

Wall Street favorites including Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, Google-parent Alphabet Inc and Amazon.com Inc, which have borne the brunt of recent losses, were down between 0.3% and 2.3% in early afternoon trading.

Tesla Inc, another Wall Street darling this year, tumbled 8.2% after Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk failed to impress with his promise to cut electric vehicle costs at the much awaited “Battery Day” event on Tuesday.

At 12:56 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.26%, the S&P 500 was down 0.59% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 1.04%.

Nike Inc surged 9.7% to a record high as its digital sales, especially in North America, helped offset a fall in sales at traditional brick-and-mortar stores.—Reuters