US STOCKS-Wall St slips as IBM, Intel falter after results

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* IBM hits two-month low on quarterly revenue miss
* Intel slips on avoiding outsourcing embrace
* Senate to vote on Yellen's Treasury secretary nomination
* Indexes: Dow down 0.54%, S&P falls 0.27%, Nasdaq flat

(Updates to market open; adds comments, details)
By Devik Jain and Medha Singh
Jan 22 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes slipped on
Friday after hitting record levels in the prior session, as
shares of blue-chip technology stalwarts Intel and IBM tumbled
following their quarterly results.
IBM Corp IBM.N slumped 10% and was the top drag on the Dow
Jones Industrial Average .DJI after it missed estimates for
quarterly revenue, hurt by a rare sales decline in its software
unit. Intel Corp INTC.O shed 6.5% as new Chief Executive Officer
Pat Gelsinger's post-earnings comments suggested the lack of a
strong embrace of outsourcing. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq pared some losses after the
opening bell as data showed U.S. manufacturing activity
surprisingly surged to its highest level in more than
13-1/2-years in early January amid strong growth in new orders.
Some investors called the drop in the Dow and the S&P 500 a
blip in what has been a strong rally since the Nov. 3 elections.
"The near-term momentum (in stock markets) is likely to
carry forward," said Mark Heppenstall, chief investment officer
at Penn Mutual Asset Management in Horsham, Pennsylvania.
"Clearly with the Fed stepping on the gas, and with fiscal
stimulus likely in some additional form over the near term, you
get the sense that there is still a lot of liquidity out there."
Shares of energy .SPNY , financial .SPSY , industrials
.SPLRCI and materials .SPLRCM companies, which had boosted
the S&P 500 by more than 14% since the elections, fell the most
on Friday.
At 09:59 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
fell 169.68 points, or 0.54%, to 31,006.33 and the S&P 500
.SPX lost 10.26 points, or 0.27%, to 3,842.81.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 0.76 points to
13,531.18, helped by a rise in shares of Microsoft Corp MSFT.O
and Facebook Inc FB.O .
Still, the three major indexes were set for weekly gains,
with the tech-heavy Nasdaq tracking its best weekly performance
since Nov. 6 as investors piled into Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O ,
Apple Inc AAPL.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O in anticipation
of their earnings reports in the coming weeks.
"For a longer-term investor buying some technology makes
perfectly good sense, but for the next 2-6 months value will do
relatively better, partly because the vaccine will continue to
be distributed," said Chuck Lieberman, chief investment officer
of Advisor Capital Management.
The U.S. Senate Finance Committee will vote on Friday on
Janet Yellen's nomination for Treasury secretary, an early
litmus test of bipartisan support for President Joe Biden's
ambitious plans for coronavirus relief, infrastructure
investment and tax hikes. Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan
and has pledged to invest $2 trillion in infrastructure, green
energy projects, education and research. Some Republicans have
expressed concerns over its price tag. Schlumberger NV SLB.N , the world's largest oilfield
services provider, joined rivals in predicting a steady recovery
in the oil industry this year. Still, its shares fell 0.6%
tracking broader sector weakness.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.6-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.9-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted four new 52-week highs and no new low
while the Nasdaq recorded 78 new highs and four new lows.