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* U.S. trade negotiators likely to visit China next week
-SCMP
* Micron jumps on report of Goldman upgrade
* Halliburton rises after Q2 profit beats estimates
* Tech stocks only gainers among major S&P sectors
* Dow down 0.13%, S&P up 0.07%, Nasdaq up 0.46%
(Changes comment, updates prices)
By Amy Caren Daniel
July 22 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 index pared early gains to
tread water on Monday, as investors awaited key central bank
meetings for direction on the path of interest rates and
earnings from marquee names including Facebook and Amazon that
are set to report this week.
Shares of Boeing Co BA.N fell 1.3% after rating agency
Fitch revised its outlook on the planemaker to "negative' from
"stable", pressuring the blue-chip Dow index .DJI , while the
tech-heavy Nasdaq was lifted by chipmakers.
"Markets are struggling to hold early gains as investors
start to fret about key upcoming central bank meetings. The main
focus on an otherwise quiet day is what the ECB and the Fed will
do," said Chris Beauchamp, an analyst at London-based trading
platform IG.
The European Central Bank meets on Thursday and money
markets are pricing in a more than 50% chance of a 10 basis
point cut in interest rates. Federal Reserve officials are set
to meet next week, where they are widely expected to lower rates
by at least 25 bps.
Hopes of an interest rate cut have helped Wall Street's main
indexes recover from a slump in May and hit record levels.
The technology index .SPLRCT rose 1.04% and was the only
major S&P sector trading higher, while the Philadelphia chip
index rose 1.77%.
Chip stocks were lifted on news that White House economic
adviser Larry Kudlow will host a meeting with executives of
semiconductor and software companies on Monday to discuss a U.S.
ban on sales to China's Huawei Technologies HWT.UL .
Second-quarter earnings have been mixed so far, with major
banks raising concerns about profit growth in a low interest
rate environment. Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and International
Business Machines IBM.N on the other hand have reported
better-than-expected earnings.
"We have had our first week of earnings season and the
overall results have been much better than feared ... we like
technology this earnings season," said Art Hogan, chief market
strategist at National Securities in New York.
About 30% of S&P 500 companies are set to report results
this week and profits at the companies are now estimated to rise
about 1%, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Facebook Inc FB.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O and
Google-parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O are reporting between
Wednesday and Thursday.
At 11:29 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 35.43 points, or 0.13%, at 27,118.77, the S&P 500
.SPX was up 2.02 points, or 0.07%, at 2,978.63. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was up 37.73 points, or 0.46%, at 8,184.22.
On the trade front, the South China Morning Post reported
U.S. trade negotiators will likely visit China next week for
their first face-to-face talk with Chinese officials since the
G20 meeting. Among other stocks, Halliburton Co HAL.N rose 6.8%, the
most among S&P 500 companies, after the oilfield services
provider's second-quarter profit beat analysts' estimates.
Micron Technology Inc MU.O was up 3.3%, after Goldman
Sachs upgraded its shares to "buy".
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.15-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and for a 1.18-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded three new 52-week highs and four new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 37 new highs and 76 new lows.