US STOCKS-S&P 500, Dow dip on jitters over Trump's China response

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* Salesforce falls after slashing profit, revenue outlook
* Trump expected to hold news conference on Friday
* Fed Chair Powell to speak at a public webcast
* Indexes: Dow off 0.26%, S&P down 0.08%, Nasdaq up 0.48%

(Updates to open)
By Medha Singh
May 29 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Dow slipped on Friday as
investors were nervous ahead of a U.S. response to China's
national security law on Hong Kong that threatens to take the
shine off another month of strong gains for the stock market.
President Donald Trump, who has warned of a tough response
to China's move, is expected to make an announcement later in
the day. "Tensions between the world's two largest economies are as
high as they've been in memory, higher than last year's trade
war that was economically focused," Cantor Fitzgerald analyst
Sachin Raghavan said.
Adding to the downbeat mood, economic data showed U.S.
consumer spending dropped by a record in April as the COVID-19
pandemic undercut demand, buttressing expectations that the
economy could contract in the second quarter at its steepest
pace since the Great Depression. Financial stocks .SPSY , the best performing S&P sector
this week, were the biggest drag on the benchmark index.
Still, Wall Street's main indexes were set to end May with a
second straight month of gains on hopes of a return to economic
normalcy after a coronavirus-led slump.
At 9:54 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
down 65.18 points, or 0.26%, at 25,335.46, and the S&P 500
.SPX was down 2.31 points, or 0.08%, at 3,027.42.
But the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 45.26 points, or
0.48%, at 9,414.25, with technology-focused firms Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O , Facebook Inc FB.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O and
Netflix Inc NFLX.O being a bright spot.
A day after Trump signed the order threatening social media
firms with new regulations over free speech, Twitter Inc
TWTR.N hid a tweet from the President and accused him of
breaking its rules by "glorifying violence". Twitter shares were down 2.8%.
Focus is also on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell who
will speak in a public webcast, where he is expected to detail
the central bank's next phase of coronavirus response. The event
is slated to start at 11:00 a.m. ET (1500 GMT). Salesforce.com Inc CRM.N slipped 4.8% as the cloud-based
business software maker cut its annual revenue and profit
forecasts. Declining issues outnumbered advancers nearly 2-to-1 on the
NYSE and 1.43-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded four new 52-week highs and no new
low, while the Nasdaq recorded 23 new highs and four new lows.