US STOCKS-Wall Street nears record high on upbeat earnings, GDP data

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* U.S. Q2 GDP growth slows to 2.1%, but tops estimates
* Twitter gains after Q2 revenue beat
* Amazon falls after quarterly profit miss
* Alphabet surges on upbeat Q2 results
* Indexes up: Dow 0.12%, S&P 0.47%, Nasdaq 0.94%

(Updates to open)
By Amy Caren Daniel
July 26 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks inched closer to record
levels on Friday, boosted by robust earnings from Google-owner
Alphabet and Intel, and data that showed the domestic economy
slowed lesser than expected in the second quarter.
The Commerce Department said GDP increased at a 2.1%
annualized rate in the second quarter, higher than a 1.8% rate
that economists polled by Reuters forecast. Hopes that the Federal Reserve will cut rates by at least 25
basis points at its policy meeting at the end of this month have
powered a solid run in stocks this month, helping Wall Street
scale record levels.
The S&P 500 .SPX and Nasdaq .IXIC indexes are now within
striking distance of another all time high.
"This is just what the market needed, not so soft that the
economy is slowing down precipitously and not so strong that the
Fed is going to reverse course," said Art Hogan, chief market
strategist at National Securities in New York.
"We expected bad earnings and bad GDP numbers, but an upside
on both is something markets are going to embrace today."
Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O jumped 11.3%, the most on the S&P 500
index, after its quarterly results beat estimates, easing
investor concerns about growth challenges faced by its Google
advertising business. Twitter Inc TWTR.N jumped 8.3% after it posted
better-than-expected second-quarter revenue and an uptick in
daily users who see advertisements on the site. Their upbeat earnings pushed the communication services
sector .SPLRCL up 3.22%, the most among S&P sectors.
At 9:45 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 33.77 points, or 0.12%, at 27,174.75, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 14.23 points, or 0.47%, at 3,017.90. The Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 77.56 points, or 0.94%, at 8,316.11.
Two weeks into the second-quarter earnings season, about 75%
of the 185 S&P 500 companies that have reported so far have
topped profit estimates, according to Refinitiv data.
Among other stocks, McDonald's Corp MCD.N jumped as much
as 2.1% to a record high after beating quarterly sales
expectations at established U.S. restaurants.
Intel Corp INTC.O rose 1% after the chipmaker gave an
upbeat current-quarter forecast and raised its full-year revenue
guidance, allaying concerns about a global chip slowdown and
curbs on U.S. sales to China's Huawei Technologies Co HWT.UL .
A decliner was Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , which fell 2.3%
after the online retailer reported its first profit miss in two
years and said income would slump in the current quarter.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.97-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 2.37-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq
The S&P index recorded 25 new 52-week highs and two new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 59 new highs and 33 new lows.