US STOCKS-Wall St rattled by China virus worries, mixed earnings

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* Facebook slides as it warns of revenue growth slowing
* Tesla jumps after posting second qtr of profit
* U.S. GDP for Q4 in line with est
* Indexes down: Dow 0.18%, S&P 0.35%, Nasdaq 0.13%

(Updates to open)
By Sruthi Shankar
Jan 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged lower on Thursday, as
the coronavirus epidemic fanned fears of a further hit to
China's economy, while a mixed batch of earnings from technology
firms also weighed on sentiment.
The flu-like virus, which has taken 170 lives in China and
spread to over 15 countries, has disrupted global travel and led
several companies to suspend operations in China, rattling
financial markets around the world. The main U.S. stock indexes are on course for their second
weekly declines, with big companies including Apple Inc AAPL.O
and Starbucks Corp SBUX.O warning of a financial hit due to
disruptions to operations.
The World Health Organization's Emergency Committee is due
to reconvene on Thursday to decide whether to declare the virus
a global emergency.
"The biggest concerns we had last year were trade policy
uncertainty and slower global growth and we were kind of
expecting global growth to pick up," said Scott Brown, chief
economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.
"So it's (the epidemic) kind of a set back. But valuations
were pretty high so it's an excuse for markets to take profits."
Earlier, the U.S. Commerce Department reported the domestic
economy expanded at a 2.1% annualized rate in the fourth
quarter, in line with economists' expectations, but the annual
growth of 2.3% missed the Trump administration's 3% target. At 9:53 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
dipped 0.18% to 28,681.29. The S&P 500 .SPX fell 0.35% to
3,261.85 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 0.13% at
9,263.10.
Overall, analysts expect profit for S&P 500 companies to be
flat in the fourth quarter versus a 0.6% decline estimated at
the start of the season, according to Refinitiv data.
Helping check losses on the Dow and the Nasdaq, Microsoft
Corp MSFT.O gained 2.9% after it beat expectations for
quarterly earnings, driven by Azure cloud computing revenue
growth. Tesla Inc shares TSLA.O jumped 11.3% after the electric
carmaker posted its second quarterly profit in a row as vehicle
deliveries hit a record. Among big decliners was Facebook Inc FB.O , falling 6.2%
after saying growth would continue to slow as its business
matured and it reported a surge in quarterly expenses.
Altria Inc MO.N dropped 6% after the tobacco company said
it took another $4 billion charge on its investment in Juul Labs
Inc. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 2.03-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 1.88-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 22 new 52-week highs and 12 new lows,
while the Nasdaq recorded 24 new highs and 56 new lows.