US STOCKS-S&P 500, Dow slide as pandemic nerves offset tech euphoria

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* Apple, Facebook at record highs after strong results
* Dow weighed down by Chevron, Exxon losses
* Indexes: S&P up 0.15%, Nasdaq adds 0.86%, Dow off 0.13%

(Updates to open)
By Medha Singh and Devik Jain
July 31 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Dow gave up early gains
on Friday as concerns about the economic damage from the
COVID-19 pandemic replaced early euphoria from stunning
quarterly earnings reports by Apple, Amazon.com and Facebook.
Apple Inc AAPL.O surged 6.4% as it delivered year-on-year
revenue gains across every category and in every geography.
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O jumped 4.4% after posting the
biggest profit in its 26-year history, while Facebook Inc FB.O
gained 7.7% it reported better-than-expected revenue.
Google-parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O , on the other hand,
fell 4.2% as quarterly sales dipped for the first time in its 16
years as a public company. Investors betting on more U.S. government stimulus, before
an extra $600-per-week federal jobless benefit expires on
Friday, have also been disappointed as the Senate adjourned for
the weekend and will return on Monday. "There is a bit of a balancing act between the positives and
negatives, a deluge of pretty strong tech earnings and then the
struggle in Congress to try to get the COVID-19 stimulus package
passed," said Dan Eye, head of asset allocation and equity
research at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
A surge in the stock price of the tech titans, which make up
nearly a fifth of the S&P 500's value, as well as aggressive
fiscal and monetary stimulus have sent the tech-heavy Nasdaq to
record highs and set the S&P 500 on course for its fourth
straight monthly gain.
The benchmark index is now about 4% shy of its February
all-time high, but faltering macroeconomic data and rising
COVID-19 cases are making investors cautious again.
Figures on Thursday confirmed the sharpest contraction in
U.S. GDP since the Great Depression, while rising jobless weekly
claims suggested a nascent recovery in the labor market was
stalling.
"We've already seen a lot of positives play out and that's
reflected in the pricing (but) we don't think the market has
priced in a cushion for unexpected events on the downside," Eye
said.
At 10:01 a.m. ET, the S&P 500 .SPX was up 4.72 points, or
0.15%, at 3,250.94, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up
91.00 points, or 0.86%, at 10,678.81. The Dow Jones Industrial
Average .DJI was down 32.94 points, or 0.13%, at 26,280.71.
The second-quarter earning season is past the halfway mark
with about 82.4% of companies that have reported beating
significantly lowered estimates, according to Refinitiv IBES
data.
Energy stocks .SPNY fell the most among the 11 major S&P
sectors after Chevron Corp CVX.N reported an $8.3 billion loss
on asset writedowns and ExxonMobil Corp XOM.N recorded a
second consecutive quarterly loss. Caterpillar Inc CAT.N reversed premarket gains and fell
3.2% after the heavy equipment maker signaled more pain from an
uncertain economic outlook. Declining issues outnumbered advancers 1.52-to-1 on the NYSE
and 1.56-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 25 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 79 new highs and six new lows.