US STOCKS-Wall St rally stalls late after Fed statement

                                

                                
 * Investors eye FOMC statement on rates and economy
                                
 * Healthcare sector jumps after election results
                                
 * U.S. private sector sheds jobs at slowest pace in yr
                                
 * Dow up 0.3 pct, S&P up 0.1 pct, Nasdaq off 0.1 pct
                                
 * For up-to-the-minute market news, click [STXNEWS/US]
  (Updates to close)
                                
 By Chuck Mikolajczak
                                
 NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks mostly eked out a
gain on Wednesday, giving back a big slice of the day's advance
after the Federal Reserve reiterated its intent to keep rates
low, but gave investors few new reasons to boost holdings.
                                
 Stocks pushed higher in the hour following the FOMC
statement, after the Fed kept its benchmark federal funds rate
unchanged in a range of zero to 0.25 percent.  For details, see
[ID:nN04453484] The Dow climbed as high as 9,928.04, while the
S&P 500 hit an intraday high at 1,061.00 and the Nasdaq touched
2,081.00.
                                
 But the market was unable to hold those gains as it
succumbed to selling pressure in the last half-hour of trading
and the Nasdaq ended slightly lower.
                                
 "This doesn't change much. It's hard to figure out how this
could be helpful for the upside, though it easily could have
been negative," said Jordan Posner, portfolio manager at Matrix
Asset Advisors in New York.
                                
 "The good news is more an absence of anything bad."
                                
 The Fed's closely watched policy statement was somewhat
more upbeat than its statement in September.  However, it was
also more explicit about why it expects to keep rates low,
citing "low rates of resource utilization, subdued inflation
trends, and stable inflation expectations."
                                
 The healthcare sector jumped on hopes the Obama
administration's healthcare reforms may be slowed after
Republicans scored some key election victories.
                                
 The Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor index <.HMO> jumped 4.7
percent, while the S&P Healthcare index <.GSPA> added 1.3
percent.
                                
 The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> gained 30.23
points, or 0.31 percent, to end at 9,802.14. The Standard &
Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> edged up 1.09 points, or 0.10 percent,
to 1,046.50. But the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> dipped 1.80
points, or 0.09 percent, to close at 2,055.52.
                                
 Healthcare stocks also got a lift from Wellcare Health
Plans Inc <WCG.N>, which climbed 6.7 percent to $28.09 after
the managed care company posted a quarterly profit above
analysts' estimates even as membership fell about 8 percent
from a year earlier. [ID:nBNG291662]
                                
 Intel Corp <INTC.O> rose 1.3 percent to $18.59 even after
it was sued by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who
accused the world's largest chipmaker of threatening computer
makers and paying billions of dollars in kickbacks to maintain
its market dominance. [ID:nN04208613]
                                
 Wall Street opened higher after a private-sector report
from ADP showed signs of improvement in the labor market. The
three major U.S. stock indexes extended gains following a
strong reading on the U.S. services sector from the Institute
for Supply Management.  [ID:nN04349022]
 (Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Additional reporting by Ryan
Vlastelica; Editing by Jan Paschal)