US STOCKS-Wall St sinks as hopes fade for rate cuts, trade progress

* Fed's Powell and Bullard dampen rate cut optimism
* Tech leads all three major U.S. indexes lower
* Allergan jumps on AbbVie's $63 bln purchase announcement
* Indexes down: Dow 0.67%, S&P 500 0.95%, Nasdaq 1.51%

(Updates to market close)
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, June 25 (Reuters) - Wall Street stock indexes fell
on Tuesday, led by a sharp selloff in technology shares, as
simmering trade concerns and disappointing economic data sent
buyers to the sidelines, while the Federal Reserve chairman
pushed back on pressure from President Donald Trump to cut
interest rates.
All three major U.S. stock indexes ended the session in the
red after Powell said the Fed was grappling with whether trade
uncertainties and other issues warrant rate cuts.
Speaking at the Council on Foreign relations, Powell also
reiterated the Fed's independence, a day after Trump tweeted the
Fed "doesn't know what it's doing." Earlier, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard in an
interview with Bloomberg said he does not think the Fed needs to
cut rates by a half-percentage point at its next policy meeting
in late July. Bullard last week said he had dissented at the Fed's June
policy meeting because he felt that weak inflation and
uncertainties about the economic outlook supported a rate
cut. "Powell and Bullard both made comments that were indicative
that we might not see any rate cut in July," said Peter Tuz,
president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville,
Virginia. "After last week's meeting, hopes for a rate cut took
off and that might not be in the picture next month."
"Likewise, last week there was a higher level of hope that
something positive will come out of the G20 meeting," Tuz added.
"As the date approaches that optimism is waning a little bit."
Indeed, U.S.-China trade war anxieties found no relief in a
White House official's remarks that Trump is "comfortable with
any outcome" resulting from a planned meeting with Chinese
President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit convening in
Japan on Friday. On the economic front, new home sales and consumer
confidence numbers both came in well below economist
expectations, according to separate reports from the U.S.
Commerce Department and the Conference Board. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 179.32 points,
or 0.67%, to 26,548.22, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 27.97 points, or
0.95%, to 2,917.38 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
120.98 points, or 1.51%, to 7,884.72.
Of the 11 major indexes in the S&P 500, ten lost ground,
with technology .SPLRCT and communications services .SPLRCL
seeing the biggest percentage drops.
"Weakness in those stocks shows people getting out of the
market, out of ETFs," Tuz said.
Rate-sensitive bank stocks .SPXBK were down 0.6%, as U.S.
Treasuries benchmark yields US10YT=RR fell below the closely
watched 2% level.
AbbVie Inc ABBV.K said it would buy Allergan Plc AGN.N
for about $63 billion, sending the Botox maker's shares up by
25.4%. AbbVie's stock dropped 16.3%. Tyson Foods Inc TSN.N and Pilgrims Pride Corp PPC.O
dipped 1.1% and 1.3%, respectively, after the U.S. Department of
Justice opened a criminal probe over possible poultry price
fixing. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
2.01-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.77-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 30 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 24 new highs and 99 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.05 billion shares, compared
to the 7.02 billion average for the full session over the last
20 trading days.