U.S. stocks pare losses, Nasdaq turns positive

U.S. stocks trimmed an early opening drop in Wednesday morning trade, with the Nasdaq turning positive in morning trading. The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.09%rose 0.1%, having previously dropped as much as 0.6% on the day. Large-capitalization discretionary stocks were among the biggest boosts to the index, with Netflix Inc.

NFLX, +3.86%up 3.6% and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +0.48%rising 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.45%fell 0.3% while the S&P 500 SPX, -0.19%was off 0.1%. Early declines came as tweets from President Donald Trump suggested he was weighing the possibility of a military strike in Syria and that tensions with Russia were growing, underscoring market action that has been driven by political uncertainty of late.