US STOCKS-Slowing job growth weighs on Wall St; new stimulus eyed

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* U.S. economy added 1.76 mln jobs in July - report
* Congress to continue talks on coronavirus relief bill
* Trump moves to ban WeChat, TikTok, amps up friction with
Beijing
* Dow down 0.27%, S&P 500 down 0.37%, Nasdaq down 1.26%

(Updates to midafternoon, changes byline)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes fell
on Friday as data showed a sharp slowdown in U.S. employment
growth, and investors turned their attention toward the
likelihood of another fiscal stimulus bill to buttress the
economy from a pandemic-induced recession.
With the benchmark S&P 500 index now about 1.5% below its
record high, defensive sectors including utilities .SPLRCU and
real estate .SPLRCR were among the gainers. Tech-related
.SPLRCT stocks, which have fueled a Wall Street rally since
March, posted the biggest declines and helped push the Nasdaq
down more than 1%.
Along the same line, value names, which have been unable to
close the performance gap with growth stocks in recent years,
advanced. The S&P 500 value index .IVX rose 0.60% while the
S&P 500 growth index .IGX lost 0.99%.
The U.S. Labor Department's closely watched report showed
nonfarm payrolls increased 1.76 million in July, much lower than
the record 4.8 million in June. However, the figure still topped economists' expectations
and analysts said it could take the pressure off Congress to
agree on a relief bill after weeks of wrangling. Differences
have partly centered around continuing an extra $600-per-week in
unemployment benefits. "A big miss, a big disappointment, or a very large exceeding
expectations would have hardened positions (in Congress) and
would have increased the divide," said Michael Arone, chief
investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston.
"In terms of fiscal policy, the fact the number came in a
little better than expected, fairly close to consensus, it puts
fiscal policy on a similar path so that neither side is going to
be able to dig in here and say 'the bill is too big,' or 'we
need to do that much more.'"
Democrats in Congress said on Friday they had offered to
reduce a proposed coronavirus aid package by a trillion dollars
if Republicans would add a trillion to their counter-offer, but
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, one of the White House
negotiators, called the proposal a "non-starter." The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 75.26 points,
or 0.27%, to 27,311.72, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 12.31 points, or
0.37%, to 3,336.85 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
139.64 points, or 1.26%, to 10,968.43.
The declines put the Nasdaq on track to snap a seven-session
streak of gains, with the Dow and S&P poised to snap
five-session win streaks. Each of the three major averages were
on pace for weekly gains.
With the second-quarter corporate earnings season largely
over, about 82% of S&P 500 companies that have reported so far
have beaten dramatically lowered estimates, with earnings on
average coming in 22.5% above expectations, the highest on
record.
T-Mobile US Inc TMUS.O jumped 5.80% as it added
more-than-expected monthly phone subscribers and said it had
overtaken rival AT&T Inc T.N as the second-largest U.S.
wireless provider. The stock was the biggest gainer on the S&P
communication services index .SPLRCL . Uber UBER.N fell 5.92% as demand for its ride-hailing
trips only marginally recovered from pandemic rock-bottom in the
second quarter, even as its food-delivery segment saw double the
orders. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump late on Thursday unveiled
sweeping bans on U.S. transactions with the Chinese owners of
messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok. In response,
China said the companies complied with U.S. laws and warned
Washington would have to "bear the consequences" of its action.
New York-listed Tencent Music Entertainment Group TME.N ,
which was spun off from WeChat-owner Tencent Holdings Ltd
0700.HK in 2018, fell 4.38%, while Facebook Inc FB.O jumped
1.80%.
Microsoft Corp MSFT.O , which is seeking to buy TikTok's
U.S. operations, was down 2.14% %. U.S.-listed Chinese stocks
such as Baidu Inc BIDU.O , Alibaba Group Holding BABA.N and
JD.com Inc JD.O also declined.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.13-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.07-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 33 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 111 new highs and seven new lows.

(Additonal reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Tom Brown)