By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow and S&P 500 fell on Thursday as Wal-Mart's soft December sales and lowered earnings outlook increased worry the recession may be deepening, stretching consumers further.
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama again made a push for a massive economic stimulus plan, though there was some nervousness among investors as specifics of his plan remain unclear.
Shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc
Wal-Mart's announcement was yet another bleak sign that consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, continues to flounder as households fret about growing unemployment and shrinking personal savings.
Trading was choppy as the broader market oscillated between losses and gains throughout the session a day before data that is expected to show more than half a million U.S. nonfarm jobs were lost in December and unemployment rose to 7 percent.
"I think a lot of the economic stimulus package that the government is going to go forward with is already built in to the stocks," said Tom Schrader, managing director of U.S. equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets in Baltimore. But "if Wal-Mart can't get it done, it's hard for anybody to get it done."
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was down 78.69 points, or 0.90 percent, at 8,691.01. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was down 2.94 points, or 0.32 percent, at 903.71. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 7.15 points, or 0.45 percent, at 1,606.21.
News that Citigroup Inc
Both the Dow industrial average and the S&P 500 have now erased their gains for the year so far although the S&P 500 is still up near 19 percent since its November 21 low.
(Editing by James Dalgleish)
