US STOCKS-Wall St slips after three days of gains; Home Depot rises

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* Home Depot rises after profit beat
* Medtronic gains on FY forecast raise
* Lower oil prices weigh on energy stocks
* Benchmark U.S. Treasury yield slips, pressures banks
* Indexes down: Dow 0.17%, S&P 0.25%, Nasdaq 0.11%

(Updates to early afternoon)
By Medha Singh
Aug 20 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes edged lower on
Tuesday after three sessions of gains, as lower Treasury yields
weighed on financial stocks, offsetting a boost from Home
Depot's better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
After a stormy start to the month on worsening trade
tensions, the three main indexes have rebounded sharply, erasing
most of their losses from a steep selloff last week on rising
hopes of global monetary stimulus.
The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX is now about 3.8% below its
all-time high hit in July. It had fallen as much as 7% from its
record last week.
"Markets have been extremely strong over the past few days,
so there is a little bit of profit taking," said Gary Bradshaw,
portfolio manager with Hodges Funds in Dallas.
Losses on the blue-chip Dow and the S&P 500 indexes were
tempered by a 4.4% rise in Home Depot Inc HD.N , which also
drove a 0.32% gain in the consumer discretionary index
.SPLRCD . "Home Depot's earnings show that people are continuing to
invest in their homes, a positive for Wall Street and the U.S.
consumer," Bradshaw said.
U.S. Treasury yields slipped on rising prospects of interest
rate cuts as well as political woes in Italy and Britain's
tumultuous exit from the European Union. US/
Bank stocks were under pressure as their profits are
typically squeezed in a lower interest rate environment. The S&P
500 banks index .SPXBK slipped 1.05%, while the broader
financial sector .SPSY fell 0.76%
All eyes this week will be on Wednesday's release of minutes
from the Federal Reserve's July policy meeting and Chair Jerome
Powell's speech on Friday at the Jackson Hole central bankers'
conference.
Powell's remarks will be closely monitored for hints if more
policy easing is in store, against the backdrop of an ongoing
trade war and growing fears of recession, signaled by the
inversion of the U.S. yield curve last week.
At 12:34 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 45.11 points, or 0.17%, at 26,090.68 and the S&P 500
.SPX was down 7.30 points, or 0.25%, at 2,916.35. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 9.08 points, or 0.11%, at 7,993.73.
Shares of Netflix Inc NFLX.O were the biggest drag on the
S&P 500, losing 3% after Walt Disney Co DIS.N announced its
streaming service would launch in Canada and the Netherlands on
November. Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors were trading lower. The
energy sector .SPNY lost 0.59%, weighed by lower oil prices.
O/R
Medtronic Plc MDT.N gained 4.5%, and was among the biggest
gainers on the S&P 500, after the medical device maker raised
its full-year adjusted profit forecast. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.28-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and for a 1.39-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 29 new 52-week highs and five new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 40 new highs and 61 new lows.