US STOCKS-Wall St ends lower 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

(Updates to close)
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 outperformed the other two main indexes and
claimed another record intraday high before ending down on the
day.
Strategists said investors may be taking profits after the
recent run higher.
"It's healthy to have some pullbacks. Even a more dramatic
pullback would be good, just because I think there's a lot of
uncertainty and it's kind of advanced on a wall of worry here,"
said Alan Lancz, president, Alan B. Lancz & Associates Inc, an
investment advisory firm, based in Toledo, Ohio.
"There's probably more profit-taking and volatility in store
on the down side after the incredible rebound from the March
lows," he said.
U.S. stocks have risen recently, with the S&P 500
registering a fifth straight session of gains on Monday, 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 under way.
Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell
396.5 points, or 1.51%, to 25,890.53, the S&P 500 .SPX lost
34.35 points, or 1.08%, to 3,145.37 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 89.76 points, or 0.86%, to 10,343.89.
"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 is still up more than 40% from its March closing
low.
Walmart Inc WMT.N gained 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 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. Earlier, 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.