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* Cisco weighs on Dow after lackluster forecast
* Kraft Heinz falls on $666 mln charge, sales miss
* China coronavirus deaths surge, but spread outside China
"not
dramatic" - WHO
* Indexes: Dow down 0.13%, S&P up 0.8%, Nasdaq up 0.12%
(Updates to late afternoon, changes dateline, byline)
By Stephen Culp
Feb 13 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 reversed its losses on
Thursday as investors weighed mixed news on the coronavirus and
a spate of corporate earnings.
While a drop in Cisco Systems Inc CSCO.O shares helped
keep the blue-chip Dow .DJI in the red, the S&P 500 .SPX and
the Nasdaq .IXIC rebounded and were both on track to eke out
their fourth consecutive record closing highs.
Hopes that the coronavirus epidemic could be on the wane
were soured by a spike in fatalities, with an additional 242
bringing China's coronavirus death toll to 1,367. The news caused a broad sell-off in global markets in a
crisis that has resulted in quarantines, supply line disruptions
and factory closings.
Still, there were glimmers of optimism as the director of
the World Health Organization (WHO) told a news briefing that
"we are not seeing dramatic increases in cases outside China."
"(Investors are) looking at cross-currents and trying to
figure out which is more important," said Chuck Carlson, chief
executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond,
Indiana. "The fact that the Fed is willing to stay the course
offsets the coronavirus issue."
Indeed, in his economic report to Congress earlier this
week, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central
bank was assessing the risk of the coronavirus and other
potential threats, indicating any change to its accommodative
policy was unlikely this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 54.33 points,
or 0.18%, to 29,497.09, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 2.89 points,
or 0.09%, to 3,382.34 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
14.34 points, or 0.15%, to 9,740.30.
Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, seven were trading
in the black, led by defensive utilities .SPLRCU and consumer
staples .SPLRCS .
Energy .SPNY stocks suffered the largest percentage loss.
The fourth-quarter reporting season is nearing its final
approach, with 378 companies in the S&P 500 having posted
results. Of those, 71.2% have surprised consensus estimates to
the upside, according to Refinitiv data.
Analysts now see aggregate fourth-quarter earnings
increasing at a 2.5% annual rate, a stark reversal from the 0.3%
decline seen at the beginning of the year.
Cisco Systems dropped 5.0% after providing lackluster
forward revenue and profit guidance on its quarterly earnings
call.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O rose 5.6% following its announcement that
it intends to raise $2 billion in a stock offering. Alibaba Group BABA.N warned that the coronavirus sweeping
China would hurt its revenues. The e-commerce company's shares
were down 1.2%. American International Group Inc AIG.N fell 4.1% despite
reporting better-than-expected quarterly profit on stronger
underwriting in its general insurance unit. Shares of Kraft Heinz Co KHC.O plunged 7.7% after the
packaged food company missed quarterly sales expectations and
took a $666 million charge. NetApp Inc NTAP.O fell about 10.4% following the data
storage equipment maker's current-quarter profit forecast miss.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.03-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.06-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 59 new 52-week highs and 3 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 132 new highs and 51 new lows.