US STOCKS-Wall Street slips as bank earnings, Trump trade comments weigh

* Wells Fargo slides on tempered cost-cutting outlook
* Goldman Sachs rises after profit beat
* Johnson & Johnson falls following Q3 warning
* J.B. Hunt jumps after strong DCS performance
* Indexes fall: Dow 0.09%, S&P 0.34%, Nasdaq 0.43%

(Updates to market close)
By April Joyner
NEW YORK, July 16 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged lower on
Tuesday as quarterly results from banks added to concerns about
lower interest rates dampening their profits, while comments
from U.S. President Donald Trump on trade also dragged down Wall
Street's major indexes.
JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N and Wells Fargo & Co WFC.N
beat quarterly profit estimates but reported weaker net interest
income, pointing to rising deposit costs. Those results followed
Citigroup Inc's C.N results on Monday, in which the bank
reported a drop in its net interest margin. JPMorgan shares erased early losses to end 1.1% higher.
Wells Fargo shares, however, slipped 3.0% as the bank tempered
its outlook for cutting costs. "The expectation is the yield curve is going to remain flat,
so you're going to still continue to see net interest margins
compress, and that's going to hurt profitability," said Michael
O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich,
Connecticut. "There's not a lot of expected upside to Q3 and
Q4."
Stocks also moved lower after Trump said there was a long
way to go with China on trade and threatened to put tariffs on
another $325 billion of Chinese goods. The major indexes briefly pared losses after Federal Reserve
Chair Jerome Powell reiterated that the central bank would "act
as appropriate" to keep the U.S. economy humming, but they later
moved back to their previous levels. "In a really quiet market, a headline like this has a
magnified effect, so even if it's not something investors don't
already know, it can move the market with ease," said Michael
Antonelli, market strategist at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee of
Trump's comments.
Shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS.N , which also
announced results, rose 1.9%. Goldman Sachs is considered the
least rate-sensitive of the three major banks that gave
quarterly reports on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 23.53 points,
or 0.09%, to 27,335.63, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 10.26 points, or
0.34%, to 3,004.04 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
35.39 points, or 0.43%, to 8,222.80.
Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N shares slipped 1.6% after the
diversified healthcare company warned that competition from
generic and copycat drugs could impact its third-quarter
results. Johnson & Johnson was the second-biggest drag on the
S&P 500. Shares of J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc JBHT.O jumped
5.6%, the greatest percentage gain among S&P 500 stocks, after
the trucking company posted strong quarterly performance in its
second-largest unit DCS, which provides final-mile delivery.
The rise in J.B. Hunt shares helped lift the Dow Jones
Transportation Average .DJT 1.8% and aided a 0.7% rise in
industrials .SPLRCI .
In economic news, a better-than-expected June retail sales
report pointed to strong consumer spending. The data did not
change the expectations of a rate cut this month, though it
lowered hopes of an aggressive cut. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.06-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.23-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 58 new 52-week highs and one new low; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 76 new highs and 70 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.18 billion shares, compared
to the 6.71 billion average for the full session over the last
20 trading days.