US STOCKS-Boeing, Intel pressure Dow as investors wary of economic recovery

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* Rare session of subdued trading on Wall Street
* U.S. core capital goods March orders show surprise rise
* AmEx builds up reserves to cover potential loan defaults
* Indexes: Dow off 0.06%, S&P 500 up 0.24%, Nasdaq up 0.48%

(Updates to early afternoon)
By C Nivedita and Shreyashi Sanyal
April 24 (Reuters) - The Dow Jones headed lower on Friday,
led by Boeing and Intel, with investors staying cautious about
an economic recovery as some states prepared to relax the
coronavirus-induced lockdowns.
Boeing Co BA.N fell 5.8% after a report the planemaker was
planning to cut 787 Dreamliner output by about half, while Intel
Corp INTC.O shed 1.4% on weak second-quarter profit forecast
and after it said it could not issue a full-year outlook.
Seven of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes were trading lower,
but the energy index .SPNY was on still track for its fifth
straight week of gains as oil prices recovered after a historic
collapse on Monday. O/R
The S&P 500, meanwhile, was on course to end a tumultuous
week lower, with investors fearful of a deep economic slump
following a near crash in April business activity and weekly
jobless claims topping 26 million in five weeks.
Still, the index has recovered more than 25% from its March
low and hopes are growing that more businesses would be allowed
to re-open as coronavirus infections showed signs of peaking.
"The market has already priced in the economic data that
we're seeing currently," said Brooke May, managing partner at
Evans May Wealth in Indianapolis, Indiana.
"As states start to re-open and businesses are able to see
revenues again - and measures are taken to contain the virus so
we don't see a resurgence - that will be seen as good news."
Georgia became the first state to push ahead with its plan
to allow an array of small businesses to re-open on Friday
despite disapproval from President Donald Trump and health
experts. Overall, analysts still expect a 14.8% decline in S&P 500
first-quarter earnings, with profits for the energy sector
estimated to slump more than 60%, raising fears of debt
defaults, layoffs and possible bankruptcies. On Friday, however, data showed orders for non-defense
capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for
business spending plans, edged up 0.1% last month, compared with
economists' expectations of a 6% plunge. "This echoes what we saw in the aftermath of the financial
crisis just over a decade ago," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S.
economist at Capital Economics.
"This time, however, with the global travel industry likely
to remain depressed by the pandemic for years to come, the
outlook for aircraft manufacturers like Boeing is even more
grim."
The CBOE volatility index .VIX , known as Wall Street's
fear gauge, was down for the third straight session.
In a rare session of relatively subdued moves on Wall
Street, at 1:11 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 13.50 points, or 0.06%, at 23,501.76, the S&P 500
.SPX was up 6.64 points, or 0.24%, at 2,804.44.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 40.89 points, or 0.48%,
at 8,535.64.
Verizon Communications Inc VZ.N declined 0.7% as it lost
68,000 phone subscribers who pay a monthly bill in the first
quarter. American Express Co AXP.N also fell half a percent after
posting a 76% drop in first-quarter profit as the credit card
issuer braced for potential losses stemming from the coronavirus
outbreak. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.29-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a
1.02-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded one new 52-week high and one new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 25 new highs and 11 new lows.