US STOCKS-Wall St flat as trade deal optimism wanes, earnings in focus

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* Energy companies among biggest drags on S&P 500
* Nike among top gainers on the Dow
* AECOM rises after deal to sell management services unit
* Indexes: Dow up 0.06%, S&P down 0.06%, Nasdaq up 0.01%

(Updates market action, adds comment)
By Arjun Panchadar and Sagarika Jaisinghani
Oct 14 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks stalled on Monday after three
straight sessions of gains as a bare-bones trade deal with China
announced on Friday dampened sentiment and triggered a 2% drop
in oil prices, ahead of the start of third-quarter earnings
season.
Oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp XOM.N and Chevron Corp CVX.N
were among the biggest drags on the S&P 500 index, as oil prices
gave up last week's gains on growing concerns that the partial
trade deal could take time to be sealed. O/R
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes ended Friday with their
first weekly gain in a month after Washington signaled the two
sides had taken a major step in easing the tit-for-tat measures
that have hammered global growth this year. But the absence of details left investors feeling less
upbeat about what had really been achieved.
"Investors are trying to wrap their head around this 'non
deal'," said Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist at
SlateStone Wealth LLC in New York.
"If (the market) was really skeptical, it would be selling
off a lot harder. But it's not because there are some good
points to it: that they are still talking and potentially
reaching a deal."
Shares of companies with a sizeable exposure to China,
including Nvidia Corp NVDA.O , Advanced Micro Devices Inc
AMD.O and Micron Technology Inc MU.O , slipped after gaining
on Friday. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index .SOX fell
0.3%.
Investors will now turn to the third-quarter earnings season
to gauge the impact of the trade conflict and a sluggish
domestic economy on corporate America.
The reporting season kicks off on Tuesday, with the big U.S.
banks expected to report a 1.2% decline in earnings due to
falling interest rates, a raft of unsuccessful stock market
floatations and trade tensions. Overall, analysts are forecasting a 3.2% decline in profit
for S&P 500 companies for the quarter from a year earlier, based
on IBES data from Refinitiv.
At 11:28 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 15.16 points, or 0.06%, at 26,831.75, while the S&P 500
.SPX was down 1.79 points, or 0.06%, at 2,968.48. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was up 0.73 points, or 0.01%, at 8,057.77.
Nike Inc NKE.N was among the top Dow gainers after Bank of
America Merrill Lynch upgraded the stock to "neutral" from
"underperform".
Shares of U.S. construction and engineering company AECOM
ACM.N rose 5.5% after it agreed to sell its management
services unit for about $2.4 billion. Fastenal Co FAST.O was down 1.4% after two brokerages
downgraded the stock. The company had logged its best day in
three decades on Friday after reporting strong results.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.56-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and for a 1.56-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded two new 52-week highs and three new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 14 new highs and 77 new lows.