US STOCKS-Wall Street rises on trade optimism; Boeing slides

(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* Boeing extends fall after brokerage downgrades
* Coty jumps on plan to sell professional beauty business
* Chipmakers, tech stocks rise on trade hopes
* Indexes up: Dow 0.06%, S&P 500 0.40%, Nasdaq 0.43%

(Updates to open)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
Oct 21 (Reuters) - Wall Street kicked off the week on an
upbeat note on Monday after the United States and China showed
some signs of progress in resolving their trade war, but a fall
in Boeing's shares pressured the blue-chip Dow index.
White House adviser Larry Kudlow said that tariffs scheduled
for December could be withdrawn if trade negotiations go well,
adding to optimism from remarks by President Donald Trump that a
trade deal could be signed by mid-November. U.S. chipmakers with a large exposure to China rose, with
the Philadelphia Semiconductor index .SOX up 0.9%.
Trade-sensitive technology stocks .SPLRCT also gained 0.3%.
"Any kind of positive development on trade just gets people
a little excited, although it is too optimistic to believe that
they will reach a whole trade deal as early as mid-November,"
said Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist at SlateStone
Wealth LLC in New York.
However, shares of Boeing Co BA.N were on track for their
worst two-day fall in over a decade as multiple brokerages
downgraded the stock after leaked messages from a former test
pilot showed he might have unintentionally misled regulators
about the safety of the grounded 737 MAX jet. Shares of the planemaker slipped 4%, also limiting gains on
the S&P 500 index .SPX .
Wall Street has recovered after a rough start to the month
on signs of progress in trade talks between the world's two
largest economies. The benchmark S&P 500 index ended Friday with
its second weekly gain, while the Nasdaq rose for three weeks in
a row.
At 10:11 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 14.99 points, or 0.06%, at 26,785.19, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 11.88 points, or 0.40%, at 2,998.08 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 34.69 points, or 0.43%, at 8,124.23.
Investors are now gearing up for earnings reports this week
from high-profile companies including Boeing, Microsoft, Procter
& Gamble Co PG.N , United Parcel Service Inc UPS.N and
Caterpillar Inc CAT.N .
Analysts have projected the first earnings contraction since
2016 for S&P 500 companies, but of the 75 companies that have
reported results so far, only 12% have come in below estimates,
according to Refinitiv data.
Halliburton Co HAL.N gained 6%, reversing earlier losses,
after the oilfield services provider detailed plans of further
cost reductions on a conference call. The company reported a 32%
slump in third-quarter profit. Coty Inc COTY.N was the biggest gainer among S&P 500
companies after the cosmetics maker said it was planning to sell
its professional beauty business that houses brands such as
Wella and OPI. Cardinal Health Inc CAH.N , McKesson Corp MCK.N and
AmerisourceBergen Corp ABC.N led declines on the benchmark
index.
The drug distributors, along with Teva Pharmaceutical
Industries TEVA.TA , reached a settlement with two Ohio
counties related to the opioid crisis. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.70-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 2.21-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 32 new 52-week highs and two new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 66 new highs and 30 new lows.