US STOCKS-Apple, Boeing lift Wall Street as Fed stands pat

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* Apple, Boeing boost Dow after results
* Starbucks slips as virus prompts store closures in China
* Dow up 0.57%, S&P 500 up 0.45%, Nasdaq up 0.54%

(Updates with Fed statement; changes byline)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, Jan 29 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday,
boosted by Apple, Boeing and General Electric following their
quarterly results, though worries about the economic damage of
the fast-spreading coronavirus kept gains in check.
Stocks showed little reaction to the Federal Reserve's
policy statement. The Fed, as expected, held rates steady while
offering no new guidance on its balance sheet or mentioning any
economic risks that could come about from the coronavirus
outbreak in China. Since the Fed's last rate cut, in October, its third
reduction of 2019, policymakers have agreed to keep their target
policy rate in the current range of 1.50% and 1.75%.
"The biggest thing going on is earnings and obviously the
coronavirus," said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at
Globalt Investments in Atlanta.
"Earnings are coming in mixed to OK, but today your
bellwether Apple was good," he said. "But for the most part the
underlying theme is there is all this stability out there in so
many different factors – inflation is low, unemployment is low,
wage growth is low and stable."
Apple Inc AAPL.O gained 3.05% after the iPhone maker late
Tuesday reported earnings for the holiday shopping quarter that
topped analysts' expectations, even as it braced for more
disruptions in virus-hit China. Boeing Co BA.N rose 2.65% after the planemaker forecast
nearly $19 billion in costs related to the grounding of its 737
MAX jets, smaller than what many analysts had expected, and
helping offset the company's report of its first annual loss
since 1997. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 163.34 points,
or 0.57%, to 28,886.19, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 14.76 points,
or 0.45%, to 3,291, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 49.66
points, or 0.54%, to 9,319.34.
As earnings gather pace, analysts expect profit for S&P 500
companies to be flat in the fourth quarter, an improvement over
the 0.6% decline estimated at the start of the season, according
to Refinitiv data.
General Electric GE.N jumped 10.19% after the industrial
conglomerate set a higher cash target for 2020. Several companies did warn of disruption to their operations
due to the coronavirus outbreak, and a Chinese government
economist was quoted as saying the country's economic growth may
drop to 5% or even lower. Starbucks Corp SBUX.O dropped 1.99% after warning of a
financial hit as it closed thousands of restaurants and adjusted
operating hours in China. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.52-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.12-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 46 new 52-week highs and eight new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 75 new highs and 52 new lows.