US STOCKS-S&P 500 edges higher after mixed retail earnings

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* Walmart posts strong Q1 results but gains fade
* Home Depot drops after results miss estimates
* Dow down 0.12%, S&P 500 up 0.26%, Nasdaq up 0.81%

(Updates to mid-afternoon, changes byline)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, May 19 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 edged up on
Tuesday, taking a breather a day after its best one-day
performance in six weeks, as investors attempted to glean
information from a mixed bag of results from major retailers
such as Walmart and Home Depot.
Home improvement chain Home Depot HD.N fell 1.59% after it
missed quarterly profit estimates due to higher costs, while
department store operator Kohl's Corp KSS.N tumbled 4.94%
after reporting a bigger-than-expected loss.
Walmart Inc WMT.N , on the other hand, exceeded
expectations for quarterly revenue and earnings as online sales
soared as consumers stockpiled essentials in response to
coronavirus lockdowns. Still, its shares were last down 1.19%
after rising as much as 3.4% earlier. "Everyone wants to take every retailer's report of being
indicative of something, but at the same time staying open and
doing stuff is good, it costs to do that," said Willie Delwiche,
investment strategist at Baird in Milwaukee.
Advance Auto Parts AAP.N climbed 5.21% after the company
said same-store sales improved significantly at the start of the
second quarter, helping to lift the S&P retailing index 1.33%.

Trillions of dollars in fiscal and monetary stimulus have
helped the S&P 500 rebound nearly 35% from its March 23 intraday
low. While the benchmark index is now less than 13% below its
Feb. 19 closing record, gains have largely slowed in May on
uncertainty over truly halting the spread of the coronavirus and
allowing business to resume and rising U.S.-China tensions.
The benchmark index surged more than 3% on Monday, boosted
by promising early-stage data for a potential COVID-19 vaccine
and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's pledge over the
weekend to support the economy as needed until the crisis has
passed.
"You would expect consolidation, some give-back after the
scale of the move we had yesterday and there is not much of
that, so at the margin that is pretty bullish," said Delwiche.
Powell, in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee on
Tuesday, said the central bank was continuing to consider ways
to accommodate additional borrowers, and that Congress should
consider anything to keep people out of insolvency.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 30.68 points,
or 0.12%, to 24,566.69, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 7.76 points,
or 0.26%, to 2,961.67, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
74.72 points, or 0.81%, to 9,309.55.
Consumer discretionary .SPLRCD and tech .SPLRCT were the
best-performing sectors, while financials .SPSY and energy
.SPNY lagged.
The NYSE Arca airline index .XAL advanced 1.33% as two top
U.S. airlines said ticket cancellations were slowing and demand
was showing signs of improvement since the pandemic brought
global travel to a virtual standstill. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.44-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.25-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 11 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 55 new highs and six new lows.