US STOCKS-Wall St dips as investors focus on Middle East, but chipmakers climb

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* Energy shares slide as oil falls
* Boeing up as it recommends 737 MAX simulator training for
pilots
* Indexes: Dow off 0.4%, S&P down 0.3%, Nasdaq down 0.03%

(Adds detail on S&P futures falling after news of rocket
attack)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Wall Street's major indexes
declined on Tuesday as investor caution persisted amid a dispute
between the United States and Iran, while energy shares fell as
oil prices gave back some recent gains.
After the bell, S&P 500 futures fell 1% following reports
that rockets were fired at an airbase in Iraq hosting U.S.
forces.
The late-day drop in S&P 500 futures suggests investors
expect Wall Street to open at a loss on Wednesday.
During Tuesday's trading session, Exxon Mobil Corp XOM.N
and Chevron Corp CVX.N declined with oil prices, which had
rallied in recent days on escalating tensions between Washington
and Tehran following the killing of a top Iranian military
commander by the United States last week. Chipmakers gained and helped to limit market losses,
especially in the Nasdaq. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index
.SOX rose 1.8% with Micron Technology Inc MU.O gaining 8.8%
after brokerage Cowen & Co upgraded the chipmaker to
"outperform."
Equity investors have been jittery since late last week,
when a U.S. drone strike killed Iranian Major General Qassem
Soleimani, taking major indexes off record highs.
"We're trying to digest the Middle East action" and other
news on the political front, said Jack Janasiewicz, portfolio
manager at Natixis Investment Managers' Multi-Asset Portfolio
Solutions group in Boston.
"It's a little bit of a step back, take a breath,
consolidate a little bit," he said. "But we're going to start to
head into earnings, and that's going to be the next catalyst for
the market."
Major U.S. companies begin reporting fourth-quarter results
next week, with S&P 500 earnings forecast as of Tuesday to have
declined 0.6% in the quarter from a year ago, according to IBES
data from Refinitiv.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 119.7 points,
or 0.42%, to 28,583.68, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 9.1 points, or
0.28%, to 3,237.18 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 2.88
points, or 0.03%, to 9,068.58.
Among gainers, Boeing Co BA.N shares climbed 1.1% after it
said it was recommending that airline pilots undergo simulator
training before they resume flying the 737 MAX, a shift from its
previous position that pilots only needed computer-based
training on new software following two fatal crashes.
Also, Microchip Technology Inc MCHP.O rose 6.7% after
raising the midpoint of its third-quarter sales forecast.
Apache Corp APA.N soared 26.8% after it made a major oil
discovery, with France's Total SA TOTF.PA , off the coast of
Suriname. On the economic front, data showed new orders for U.S.-made
goods fell in November, pulled down by steep declines in demand
for machinery and transportation equipment. However, a reading on non-manufacturing sector activity for
November came in better than expected. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.30-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.22-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 37 new 52-week highs and one new low; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 94 new highs and 16 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.89 billion shares, compared
with the 6.94 billion-share average for the full session over
the last 20 trading days.