(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* Fed's rate-setting meeting underway
* Trump fires new warning at China
* P&G rises on quarterly profit beat
* Under Armour slides on N.America rev forecast cut
* Indexes off: Dow 0.23%, S&P 500 0.38%, Nasdaq 0.34%
(Updates to early afternoon)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
July 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks slid on Tuesday after a
fresh warning from President Donald Trump to China pressured
technology shares, while investors speculated the scale of an
interest rate cut at the end of the Federal Reserve's policy
meeting.
Apple Inc's AAPL.O results after markets close will paint
a clear picture of the impact of trade tensions with China.
Shares of the iPhone maker fell 0.76%, contributing the most to
the tech sector's .SPLRCT 0.64% drop.
"Investors are very concerned about how weak Apple's Chinese
business will do," said Tony Roth, chief investment officer at
Wilmington Trust in Wilmington, Delaware.
As trade talks between the world's two biggest economies
resumed on Tuesday, Trump warned China against trying to wait
out his first term in office to finalize a deal.
Market participants are now bracing for what message the Fed
will send if it pushes ahead with a well-telegraphed move to
ease policy that has driven Wall Street's main indexes to record
highs in the past few weeks and contributed to the S&P 500
index's 20% gain for the year.
With a quarter-percentage-point cut in rates at the end of
the meeting on Wednesday fully priced-in, investors will monitor
how Fed Chairman Jerome Powell manages debate about whether the
stimulus is necessary and what that says about the attitude of
the U.S. central bank to doing more in the months ahead.
"The Fed has a very strong rationale for cutting interest
rates, that is to stimulate growth and inflation, but
policymakers have to resort to justifications to keep the
expansion going," Roth said.
Corporate earnings so far have been robust. With half of all
S&P 500 companies reporting second-quarter results, about 76%
have topped profit estimates, according to Refinitiv data.
Backing the case further for a reduction in borrowing costs
was data from the Commerce Department that showed U.S. consumer
spending and prices rose moderately in June, pointing to slower
economic growth and benign inflation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 62.54 points,
or 0.23%, to 27,158.81, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 11.35 points, or
0.38%, to 3,009.62. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 28.52
points, or 0.34%, to 8,264.81.
Limiting losses on the blue-chip Dow index was Procter &
Gamble Co PG.N , which jumped 4.41% after the consumer goods
maker beat estimates for quarterly revenue.
The financials sector .SPSY fell 0.56%, hit by a decline
in shares of Capital One Financial Corp COF.N after the
credit-card issuer said information for 106 million people had
been compromised. Bank stocks .SPXBK , which tend to benefit from a rising
interest rate environment, dropped 0.26%.
Pfizer Inc's PFE.N 6.10% tumble weighed the most on the
healthcare index .SPXHC . A couple of brokerages downgraded the
stock after the drugmaker said on Monday it would spin off its
off-patent drugs unit and merge it with Mylan MYL.O .
Under Armour Inc UAA.N slipped 11.84% after the sportswear
maker cut its full-year revenue forecast for North America, its
biggest market. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.04-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a
1.44-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 27 new 52-week highs and one new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 52 new highs and 75 new lows.