(Updates to US midday)

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Sterling shuffles higher as BoE holds rates in tight call

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Wall Street stock indexes lower

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US dollar falls against major currencies

By Caroline Valetkevitch and Marc Jones

NEW YORK/LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) -

Major stock indexes fell sharply on Thursday, with

technology and consumer discretionary shares leading losses in

the S&P 500, while the British pound firmed after the Bank of

England opted against an interest rate cut.

Shares of U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm ( QCOM ) dropped more than

4% after

warning

that its chips might not be as dominant as before in future

Samsung gadgets.

Shares of

Legrand plunged after the French data-center

equipment firm reported sales growth of 11.9% in the first nine

months of the year, slightly below expectations, hit by U.S.

tariffs.

Sterling was last up 0.37% at $1.3097. Ahead of

likely tax hikes in UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves' budget later

this month, the BoE Monetary Policy Committee voted 5-4 to keep

the central bank's benchmark Bank Rate at 4.0%. The close vote

kept expectations of a cut before year-end intact.

On Wall Street, investors remain focused on stretched

valuations, the U.S. government shutdown, trade tariff legal

rulings, and the ongoing slew of corporate earnings.

"This earnings season is not defined in the rearview

mirror. The market wants guidance and right now, with tariffs,

the shutdown and possibly peak AI (artificial intelligence), the

future could be bleak," said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive

officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Earlier this week, some U.S. bank chief executives

warned

about a likely market pullback.

Investors digested a report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas

that showed U.S.-based employers cut more than 150,000 jobs in

October, marking the month's biggest reduction in more than 20

years.

Economic data from private sources has drawn increased

investor interest amid the absence of official data during the

U.S. government's longest-ever shutdown.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 373.08 points,

or 0.79%, to 46,937.92, the S&P 500 slid 63.56 points, or

0.94%, to 6,732.73 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped

363.84 points, or 1.56%, to 23,135.95.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe

fell 4.87 points, or 0.49%, to 993.02.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.73%.

Overnight, Japan's Nikkei rebounded 1.4% after

sliding 2.5% on Wednesday. In China, Shanghai's benchmark stock

index reclaimed the psychologically important 4,000 level, as

optimism over tech self-sufficiency boosted its semiconductor

and AI-related shares.

The dollar fell after the weak U.S. labor data increased

market expectations of another Federal Reserve rate cut this

year.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback

against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,

fell 0.28% to 99.85, with the euro up 0.36% at $1.1532.

Against the yen, the dollar weakened 0.64% to 153.12.

In bond markets, euro zone benchmark Bund yields dropped

from their four-week high after the BoE decision. Germany's

10-year yields were down 2 basis points (bps) at

2.65% after hitting 2.676% early in the session, the highest

level since October 10.

U.S. Treasury yields fell, with investors concerned about the

labor market and uncertainty from the U.S. government shutdown.

The benchmark U.S. 10-year note yield fell 6.4 basis

points to 4.093%, from 4.157% late on Wednesday.

U.S. crude slid 0.69% to $59.18 a barrel and Brent

fell to $63.19 per barrel, down 0.52% on the day.

(Additional reporting by Rae Wee in Singapore; Editing by

Richard Chang

Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Peter Graff and Richard Chang)