US STOCKS-Slowing job growth weighs on Wall St as focus turns to stimulus

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* U.S. economy added 1.76 mln jobs in July - report
* Congress to continue talks on coronavirus relief bill
* Trump moves to ban WeChat, TikTok, amps up friction with
Beijing
* Indexes off: Dow 0.34%, S&P 0.34%, Nasdaq 1.16%

(Updates to early afternoon)
By Sagarika Jaisinghani and Ambar Warrick
Aug 7 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes fell on Friday
as data showed a sharp slowdown in U.S. employment growth, with
investors now looking for signs of another fiscal stimulus bill
to revive the economy from a pandemic-driven recession.
With the benchmark S&P 500 index now about 1% below its
record high, defensive sectors including utilities .SPLRCU and
real estate .SPLRCR were among the gainers. Tech-related
.SPLRCT stocks, which have fueled a Wall Street rally since
March, posted the biggest declines.
The Labor Department's closely watched report showed nonfarm
payrolls increased 1.76 million in July, much lower than the
record 4.8 million in June. However, the figure still topped economists' expectations
and analysts said it could take the pressure off Congress to
agree on a relief bill after weeks of wrangling. Differences
have partly centered around continuing an extra $600-per-week in
unemployment benefits. "We seem to be in a quagmire to get the new stimulus out of
Washington right now," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist
at National Securities in New York.
"We were a bit spoiled in the early rounds of fiscal policy,
getting them out as rapidly as we did, and now we're settling
back into Washington operating the way that we're used to and
that gets frustrating for markets."
Top Democratic congressional leaders and White House
officials said they would continue negotiations on Friday.
At 1:11 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
down 94.42 points, or 0.34%, at 27,292.56, the S&P 500 .SPX
was down 11.35 points, or 0.34%, at 3,337.81, and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 128.54 points, or 1.16%, at
10,979.53.
With the second-quarter corporate earnings season largely
over, about 82% of S&P 500 companies that have reported so far
have beaten dramatically lowered estimates, with earnings on
average coming in 22.5% above expectations, the highest on
record.
T-Mobile US Inc TMUS.O jumped 6.6% as it added
more-than-expected monthly phone subscribers and said it had
overtaken rival AT&T Inc T.N as the second-largest U.S.
wireless provider. The stock was the biggest gainer on the S&P
communication services index .SPLRCL . Uber UBER.N fell 5.7% as demand for its ride-hailing trips
only marginally recovered from pandemic rock-bottom in the
second quarter, even as its food-delivery segment saw double the
orders. Meanwhile, Trump late on Thursday unveiled sweeping bans on
U.S. transactions with the Chinese owners of messaging app
WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok. In response, China said the
companies complied with U.S. laws and warned Washington would
have to "bear the consequences" of its action. New York-listed Tencent Music Entertainment Group TME.N ,
which was spun off from WeChat-owner Tencent Holdings Ltd
0700.HK in 2018, fell 3.4%, while Facebook Inc FB.O jumped
2.5%.
Microsoft Corp MSFT.O , which is seeking to buy TikTok's
U.S. operations, was down 1.9%. U.S.-listed Chinese stocks such
as Baidu Inc BIDU.O , Alibaba Group Holding BABA.N and JD.com
Inc JD.O fell between 2.1% and 5.8%.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners 1.04-to-1 on the NYSE
and 1.15-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 31 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 108 new highs and six new lows.