US STOCKS-Wall Street drops on new trade worries, Fed; Apple eyed

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* Fed's rate-setting meeting underway
* Trump fires new trade warning at China
* Apple due to report after the bell
* P&G rises on quarterly profit beat
* Indexes off: Dow 0.05%, S&P 500 0.20%, Nasdaq 0.12%

(Updates to late afternoon, adds dateline, byline)
By Evan Sully
NEW YORK, July 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks slipped on Tuesday
after a warning from President Donald Trump to China pressured
technology shares, while investors looked to an expected
interest rate cut at the conclusion of the Federal Reserve's
monetary policy meeting.
The three major U.S. stock indexes were in the red,
pressured by consumer discretionary and technology stocks.
As trade talks between the world's two biggest economies
resumed in Shanghai on Tuesday, Trump warned China against
trying to wait out his first term in office to finalize a deal.
Apple Inc's AAPL.O results after markets close illuminate
the impact of trade tensions with China. Shares of the iPhone
maker were down 0.08%, contributing the most to the tech
sector's .SPLRCT 0.5% drop.
"Trade and iPhone demand in China are going to be part of
the issue," said Joseph Sroka, chief investment officer at
NovaPoint in Atlanta. "But on the flip side, the transition
Apple is making from a hardware company to a services company is
going to be closely watched."
Market participants are looking ahead to the Fed's statement
at the conclusion of its two-day meeting on Wednesday for clues
as to how the central bank will proceed through year-end.
Many analysts believe a 25-basis-point cut in interest rates
is fully priced into the market. "There's a high expectation that the Fed is going to lower
short-term interest rates tomorrow and that's been a driver of
the markets over the last few weeks," said Sroka.
Commerce Department data showed U.S. consumer spending and
prices rose moderately in June, pointing to slower economic
growth and bolstering the case for monetary easing.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 30.26 points,
or 0.11%, to 27,191.09, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 7.24 points, or
0.24%, to 3,013.73he Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 13.05
points, or 0.16%, to 8,280.28.
Just over half of the S&P 500 companies have released
second-quarter earnings, of which 75.9% have beat bottom-line
analyst expectations, according to Refinitiv data.
Procter & Gamble Co PG.N jumped 4.3% after the consumer
products maker beat quarterly revenue estimates, limiting
losses on the blue-chip Dow index. 4.3
Shares of Capital One Financial Corp COF.N fell after the
credit-card issuer said information on 106 million people had
been compromised. Pfizer Inc's PFE.N stock dropped 6.6%, weighing the most
on the healthcare index .SPXHC , after brokers downgraded the
stock following the drugmaker's announcement on Monday that it
would spin off its Upjohn unit and merge it with Mylan MYL.O .
Merck & Co Inc MRK.N edged higher after reporting
better-than-expected second-quarter results and raising its
full-year earnings forecast. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.15-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.72-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 28 new 52-week highs and 1 new low; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 66 new highs and 82 new lows.