UKX FTSE 100 Index

By Anna Isaac and Akane Otani 

Stocks inched lower, paring early declines after Democratic lawmakers reached an agreement with the Trump administration to support a trade deal with Mexico and Canada.

The trading day unfolded quietly, even as a flurry of news caught traders' and analysts' attention. Stock futures had initially climbed after The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators were looking to delay a new round of tariffs. They then erased some of their gains heading into the opening bell after House Democrats announced two articles of impeachment against President Trump.

Markets then drifted off their lows after House Democrats said they reached an agreement with the administration on a trade deal with Mexico and Canada.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 27.88 points, or 0.1%, to 27881.72. The S&P 500 lost 3.44 points, or 0.1%, to 3132.52, and the Nasdaq Composite edged down 5.64 points, or 0.1%, to 8616.18.

Developments from Washington as well as news on trade could spur further market volatility heading into year-end.

Chinese and U.S. officials involved in the talks to postpone tariffs on $165 billion of Chinese goods set to kick in on Dec. 15 say they don't have a hard deadline for an initial deal. "A lot of different options are still on the table. We just don't know what's going to happen," said Oliver Jones, market economist at Capital Economics. "At one end of the spectrum, there's a deal and the tariffs rollback. But just last week we had Trump's remarks that there might not be a deal until after the election."

Declines among technology companies weighed on major indexes, with Netflix down $9.38, or 3.1%, to $293.12 after Needham analysts downgraded the stock to underperform from hold.

Deal news also drove swings among individual stocks.

Shares of NortonLifeLock climbed 88 cents, or 3.5%, to $26.28 after the Journal reported that the consumer-software company has attracted deal interest from several companies, including rival McAfee.

Federal Reserve officials kicked off their final two-day policy meeting of the year Tuesday. Officials are expected to decide to hold steady on interest rates after lowering their benchmark rate three times since July to try to cushion the U.S. economy against a slowdown in global growth.

The Stoxx Europe 600 dropped 0.3%, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index dropped 0.3%. Britain is preparing to head to the polls Thursday for a general election.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.1%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.2%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.3%, while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.1%.

The WSJ Dollar Index, which compares the currency with 16 others, fell 0.1% to 90.56.

Write to Anna Isaac at anna.isaac@wsj.com and Akane Otani at akane.otani@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 10, 2019 17:30 ET (22:30 GMT)

FTSE 100
Index Chart
Von Mär 2024 bis Apr 2024

FTSE 100
Index Chart
Von Apr 2023 bis Apr 2024