Stocks open mostly lower as COVID cases continue rise

Stocks opened mostly lower Thursday, under pressure as a continued rise in COVID-19 cases overshadowed optimism over progress toward a vaccine. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.67%
was down 160 points, or 0.5%, near 29,237, while the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.43%
was off 0.4%, near 3,558. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+0.25%
was 0.1% lower at 11,773. The Nasdaq underperformed sharply earlier this week as optimism over trial results for a vaccine candidate developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE sparked a sharp rotation Monday and Tuesday into cyclical and value-oriented stocks away from high-flying tech shares and other growth names.