US STOCKS-Wall Street ends mixed as China-U.S. tensions weigh

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* Alibaba tumbles despite upbeat earnings report
* KKR rises on deal with India's Reliance Industries

(Updates with close of trading)
By Noel Randewich
May 22 (Reuters) - Wall Street ended mixed on Friday in a
mostly tame finish to a week of strong gains, as investors
gauged China-U.S. tensions and amid ongoing uncertainty about
the pace of economic recovery from the coronavirus.
President Donald Trump's warning on Thursday that the U.S.
would react strongly to China's plan for a national security law
in Hong Kong has raised concerns over Washington and Beijing's
possibly reneging on their Phase 1 trade deal. Late in the session, stocks edged lower after the U.S.
Commerce Department said it was adding 33 Chinese companies and
other institutions to an economic blacklist for human rights
violations and to address U.S. national security concerns.
The increasing rhetoric between Washington and Beijing has
knocked Wall Street off multi-month highs, although the three
main indexes still all rose around 3% for the week, fueled by
optimism about an eventual coronavirus vaccine and the easing of
virus-related curbs.
"We still think COVID-19 concerns are in the driver's seat,
but we could see U.S.-China relations move back into the front
seat," said Eric Freedman, chief investment officer at U.S. Bank
Wealth Management.
U.S. stock exchanges will be closed on Monday for the
Memorial Day holiday.
The Nasdaq index is down about 5% from its Feb. 19 record
high, helped in recent weeks by gains in Microsoft MSFT.O ,
Amazon AMZN.O and other heavyweight companies seen coming out
of the economic downturn stronger than their smaller rivals.
Real estate .SPLRCR led the S&P 500 sector indexes higher,
while energy .SPNY dropped as oil prices sank about 3%. O/R
A drop in Chevron CVX.N weighed on the Dow.
Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell
8.96 points, or 0.04%, to 24,465.16, the S&P 500 .SPX gained
6.94 points, or 0.24%, to 2,955.45, and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 39.71 points, or 0.43%, to 9,324.59.
Mixed earnings from retailers Walmart Inc WMT.N , Best Buy
Co Inc BBY.N and Home Depot Inc HD.N earlier this week
showed online shopping gaining traction with the lockdown
orders, a trend that could damage brick-and-mortar players
already feeling pressure from internet rivals.
On Friday, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group BABA.N
reported better-than-expected quarterly profit, but its shares
tumbled. Smaller rival Pinduoduo Inc's U.S.-listed shares
PDD.O surged after the company posted upbeat results.
Nvidia NVDA.O climbed after forecasting strong quarterly
revenue as demand surges for its data center chips. KKR & Co KKR.N rose after India's Reliance Industries
RELI.NS said the private equity firm would buy a 2.3% stake in
its digital unit for 113.67 billion rupees ($1.50 billion).
Data analytics software maker Splunk Inc SPLK.O jumped
after it said it expects more demand for its cloud services.