US STOCKS-Trade tensions push down Wall Street

* Qualcomm slumps after judge rules it violated antitrust
law
* Lowe's, Nordstrom fall on disappointing FY forecasts
* Indexes off: Dow 0.19%, S&P 0.08%, Nasdaq 0.15%

(Updates to late afternoon, changes byline, adds NEW YORK to
dateline)
By April Joyner
NEW YORK, May 22 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks dipped on Wednesday
as reports that Washington could impose restrictions on another
Chinese technology company further inflamed trade tensions
between the world's two largest economies.
Fears that tit-for-tat tariffs and other retaliatory actions
by the United States and China will hit global growth have kept
investors on edge, putting the S&P 500 on track to post its
first monthly decline since the December selloff.
Media reports on Wednesday said the Trump administration was
considering sanctions on video surveillance firm Hikvision, the
second major Chinese technology company facing U.S. curbs.
The release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest
policy meeting, in which officials agreed that their patient
approach to setting monetary policy could remain in place "for
some time," had little impact on Wall Street's major indexes.
"I don't think the Fed is a major consideration for the
market right now," said Robert Phipps, a director at Per
Stirling Capital Management in Austin. "There are times when
geopolitical factors overwhelm everything else, and we believe
this is increasingly one of those times."
"The Fed meeting took place before the trade deal blew up,"
he added.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 50.18 points,
or 0.19%, to 25,827.15, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 2.37 points, or
0.08%, to 2,861.99 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
11.30 points, or 0.15%, to 7,774.43.
Also weighing on the markets was Qualcomm Inc's QCOM.O
11.4% plunge, among the biggest declines on the S&P 500.
A federal judge ruled that the chipmaker illegally
suppressed competition in the market for smartphone chips by
threatening to cut off supplies and extracting excessive
licensing fees. Retailers wrapped up the first-quarter earnings season on a
downbeat note, with Lowe's Cos Inc LOW.N shares falling 12.3%
after the home improvement chain cut its full-year profit
forecast. Lowe's was among the biggest drags on the S&P 500
consumer discretionary sector index .SPLRCD , which fell 0.7%,
as well as the S&P 500 at large.
Nordstrom Inc JWN.N shares declined 9.6% after the
department store operator reduced its full-year sales and profit
forecasts. However, shares of Target Corp TGT.N jumped 9.3%, the most
among S&P 500 companies, after the retailer's quarterly
same-store sales and profit beat estimates. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.57-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.75-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 27 new 52-week highs and eight new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 39 new highs and 109 new lows.