US STOCKS-Wall St sinks on trade jitters ahead of Powell speech

* Tech leads all 3 major U.S. indexes lower
* Allergan jumps on AbbVie's $63 bln purchase announcement
* Fed Chair Powell due to speak at 1:00 p.m. ET
* Indexes down: 0.15%, S&P 0.32%, Nasdaq 0.61%

(Updates to mid-day, changes dateline, byline)
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, June 25 (Reuters) - Wall Street lost ground on
Tuesday as simmering geopolitical and trade concerns, combined
with disappointing economic data, kept buyers at bay and
investors looked to remarks from U.S. Federal Reserve chair
Jerome Powell expected later in the session.
Technology companies led all three major U.S. stock indexes
into the red ahead Powell's speech and the question-and-answer
session to follow, which will be scrutinized by market
participants for clues as to when and by how much the central
bank will cut key interest rates.
"It's not an all-red day but it's pretty much a risk-off day
with money moving into defensive names," said Tim Ghriskey,
chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.
Despite Tuesday's sell-off, June is shaping up to be a good
month for U.S. equities. The benchmark S&P 500 is still hovering
within a percent of its all-time high reached last Thursday.
Still, anxieties stemming from the ongoing U.S.-China trade
war found no relief in a White House official's remarks that
President Trump is "comfortable with any outcome" arising from
an expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the
Group of 20 summit convening in Japan on Friday. "The upcoming meeting between Xi and Trump is being
anxiously anticipated," Ghriskey added. "Expectations for that
meeting are low, even pessimistic."
On the economic front, sales of newly constructed homes and
consumer confidence numbers both came in well below economist
expectations, according to separate reports from the U.S.
Commerce Department and the Conference Board. Increasing signs of economic softness, especially related to
the trade disputes between the United States and its major
trading partners, helped prompt the Federal Reserve last week to
signal interest rate cuts beginning as early as July.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 39.64 points,
or 0.15%, to 26,687.9, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 9.33 points, or
0.32%, to 2,936.02 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
48.90 points, or 0.61%, to 7,956.80.
Of the 11 major indexes in the S&P 500, seven were in
negative territory, with communications services .SPLRCL
seeing the biggest percentage drop.
Rate-sensitive bank stocks .SPXBK were down 0.3%, as U.S.
benchmark yields US10YT=RR fell below the closely watched 2%
level.
The healthcare sector .SPXHC edged up 0.2%, boosted by
news of a multi-billion dollar deal.
AbbVie Inc ABBV.K said it would buy Allergan Plc AGN.N
for about $63 billion, sending the Botox-maker's shares up by
26.7%. AbbVie's stock dropped 15.2% on the news. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.11-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.15-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 28 new 52-week highs and 5 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 19 new highs and 64 new lows.