US STOCKS-Apple, Boeing lead Wall Street higher

(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* Apple boosts S&P 500, Boeing lifts Dow
* Caterpillar dips after lowering profit forecast
* Texas Instruments leads declines among chip stocks
* Boston Scientific, Thermo Fisher jump on upbeat profits
* Indexes up: Dow 0.09%, S&P 0.09%, Nasdaq 0.01%

(Updates market action, adds comment)
By Shreyashi Sanyal and Arjun Panchadar
Oct 23 (Reuters) - Wall Street edged higher on Wednesday,
led by gains in Boeing and Apple shares, even as weak earnings
from Caterpillar and Texas Instruments raised concerns about the
impact of the U.S.-China trade war on global growth.
Apple Inc's AAPL.O shares rose 1.2% after Morgan Stanley
said the iPhone maker's soon-to-be-launched video streaming
service, Apple TV+, could boost its services revenue.
But the tit-for-tat tariff moves between the United States
and China prompted profit and revenue warnings from Texas
Instruments TXN.O and Caterpillar Inc CAT.N . Texas Instruments, seen as a proxy for the microchip sector,
dropped 6.7%, while industrial bellwether Caterpillar slipped
0.5%. The stocks weighed on the Philadelphia Semiconductor index
.SOX and the S&P 500 industrials sector .SPLRCI ,
respectively.
"It's pretty clear there were some tough numbers coming out
from bellwether type names like Caterpillar and Boeing, and
certainly in the case of Boeing, people are shrugging it off,"
said Josh Wein, portfolio manager at Hennessy Funds in Chapel
Hill, North Carolina.
Boeing's shares rose 2%, lifting the blue-chip Dow Jones
index, after the world's largest planemaker reaffirmed the
timeline for its grounded 737 MAX's return to service, as
investors looked past a 53% drop in quarterly profit.
The S&P 500 has hovered near its record high this week after
signs of progress in trade talks between the world's top two
economies.
Investors are now waiting for results from big tech firms,
with Microsoft Corp MSFT.O scheduled to report after markets
close.
The earnings season has largely been upbeat with more than
82% of the 124 S&P 500 companies that have reported so far
surpassing earnings expectations, according to Refinitiv data.
But analysts still project the first earnings contraction since
2016.
At 12:09 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 24.58 points, or 0.09%, at 26,812.68, while the S&P 500
.SPX was up 2.74 points, or 0.09%, at 2,998.73. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was up 0.83 points, or 0.01%, at 8,105.12.
A 1.6% gain in Facebook FB.O boosted the tech heavy index
after CEO Mark Zuckerberg sought to reassure U.S. lawmakers
about its planned digital currency, Libra. A handful of healthcare companies with low exposure to China
rose on strong results, helping the S&P 500 healthcare sector
.SPXHC climb 0.87%.
Alexion Pharmaceuticals ALXN.O jumped 7% after raising
full-year forecast, while medical device makers Boston
Scientific Corp BSX.N and Thermo Fisher Scientific TMO.N
both gained about 6% after upbeat profits. However, Eli Lilly and Co LLY.N fell 2.8% after the
drugmaker missed third-quarter revenue estimates. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.79-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.27-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 13 new 52-week highs and one new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 40 new highs and 48 new lows.