US STOCKS-Wall St set to dip on slowing job growth, U.S.-China tensions

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* U.S. economy added 1.76 million jobs in July - report
* Congress to continue talks on coronavirus relief bill
* Trump moves to ban WeChat, TikTok amps up friction with
Beijing
* Goldman Sachs inches higher even as it restates profit
* Futures off: Dow 0.18%, S&P 0.30%, Nasdaq 0.40%

(Adds details on jobs report, comments; updates prices)
By Sagarika Jaisinghani and Ambar Warrick
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 was set to pull back from near
six-month highs on Friday as data showed a sharp slowdown in
U.S. employment growth and President Donald Trump cranked up
friction with Beijing with moves to ban WeChat and TikTok.
The Labor Department's closely watched report showed nonfarm
payrolls increased by 1.76 million in July. While that was
better than the 1.6 million that economists surveyed by Reuters
had forecast, it was still sharply lower than a record 4.8
million in June. "There's a lot of anxiety coming into this jobs report so
the prospect that the recovery hasn't stalled out is certainly
very welcome news," said Yung-Yu Ma, Chief Investment Strategist
at BMO Wealth Management in Portland, Oregon.
"(But) the data is still backwards looking, so it's not
something we can necessarily believe is the all-clear sign.
There's definitely still challenges ahead."
Underlining the disconnect between U.S. economic health and
a stimulus-led rally on Wall Street, the Nasdaq closed on
Thursday above 11,000 for the first time and the S&P 500
finished about 1% below its record high as traders counted on
Congress to agree another coronavirus relief package.
But Democratic leaders and Trump's top aides have so far
failed to make substantial progress, with differences partly
centered around continuing an extra $600-per-week in
unemployment benefits. Meanwhile, Trump late on Thursday unveiled sweeping bans on
U.S. transactions with the Chinese owners of messaging app
WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok. In response, China said the
companies complied with U.S. laws and warned that Washington
would have to "bear the consequences" of its action.
Shares of WeChat-owner Tencent Holdings Ltd 0700.HK fell
as much as 10% in Asia trade, while New York-listed Tencent
Music Entertainment Group TME.N , which was spun off from
Tencent in 2018, fell 5.7% in U.S. premarket trading.
Microsoft Corp MSFT.O , which is seeking to buy TikTok's
U.S. operations, was down about 0.6%.
At 8:49 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 50 points,
or 0.18%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 10 points, or 0.3%,
and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 45.25 points, or 0.4%.
With the second-quarter corporate earnings season largely
over, about 83% of S&P 500 companies that have reported so far
have beaten dramatically lowered estimates, with earnings on
average coming in 23.5% above expectations - the highest on
record.
Goldman Sachs GS.N inched higher even as it cut its
previously stated quarterly earnings, having set aside more
money to pay for its settlement with the Malaysian government
over the multi-billion 1MDB scandal.
T-Mobile US Inc TMUS.O rose 5% as it added
more-than-expected monthly phone subscribers and said it had
overtaken rival AT&T Inc T.N as the second-largest U.S.
wireless provider. AT&T dipped 0.1%.