Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks pared losses after the Financial Times reported that Italy was in talks with a Chinese investment firm to buy bonds.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.8 percent to 1,145.12 at 2:39 p.m. in New York after losing as much as 1.6 percent.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael P. Regan at mregan12@bloomberg.net