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| - Wall Street stocks paused near records early Thursday as a three-day rally showed signs of fading while markets continued to monitor the coronavirus outbreak in China. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both smashed records Wednesday, betting that the economic hit from the epidemic will not be lasting even as some analysts warned of potential market volatility due to the outbreak. On Thursday, China announced it would halve tariffs on $75 billion-worth of US imports as part of the trade truce with Washington signed last month, a concrete sign of progress on the deal. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox Business Network he expects China to fulfill its commitments under the accord to buy $200 billion US farm products and other goods, saying sales will not be derailed by the virus. About 25 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down a hair at 29,278.08. The broad-based S&P 500 edged up 0.1 percent to 3,338.60, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.2 percent to 9,529.98. Twitter surged 15 percent as it reported lower profits, but topped $1 billion in revenues, adding millions of new users in the fourth quarter. Estee Lauder climbed 3.6 percent after reporting better-than-expected quarterly profits. But the cosmetics giant cut its annual forecast, citing a hit from the coronavirus. jmb/hs
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