US STOCKS-Wall St bounces back on tech strength, focus shifts to earnings

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* Verizon rises as Q2 profit beats estimates
* Kellogg jumps on quarterly profit, sales beat
* Qualcomm slides on weak rev, profit forecast
* Indexes up: Dow 1.01%, S&P 500 0.95%, Nasdaq 1.47%

(Updates prices, adds comments)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
Aug 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks bounced back on Thursday from
a steep selloff in the prior session, boosted by technology
shares as investors shrugged off a cautious outlook from the
Federal Reserve on interest rate cuts and focused on corporate
earnings.
The U.S. central bank reduced borrowing costs by a
widely-expected quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, but
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell signaled a series of further cuts was
unlikely, leading to a sharp selloff on the S&P 500 and Dow.
Despite that, all three major indexes posted their second
straight monthly gains in July, closing the book on a month in
which the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq reached fresh record highs.
"As people thought about the cut overnight, it really wasn't
such a big change from what they expected. The Fed isn't going
to keep cutting if the economy shows signs of improvement, but
they may cut ahead," said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane
Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey.
The two big issues for the markets have been the U.S.-China
trade talks and the Fed rate cut, which are now momentarily
behind us, so investors have now shifted their focus to
individual earnings, Meckler said.
Earnings reports so far have been robust with 355 companies
in the S&P 500 that have reported second-quarter earnings, 74.4%
have beaten Street estimates for profit, according to Refinitiv
data.
The S&P 500 technology sector .SPLRCT , Wall Street's best
performer so far this year, rose 2%, recovering from a 1.5% drop
in the previous session, helped by shares of Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O and Apple Inc AAPL.O .
Verizon Communications Inc VZ.N rose 1.14%, contributing
to a 1.36% gain in the communication services sector .SPLRCL ,
after the wireless carrier beat quarterly profit estimates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 270.23 points,
or 1.01%, to 27,134.5 and the S&P 500 .SPX gained 28.29
points, or 0.95%, to 3,008.67.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 119.97 points, or 1.47%,
to 8,295.39.
Kellogg Co K.N jumped 9.63% after the company beat
analysts' expectations for quarterly sales and profit, driven by
higher demand for its snacks in North America. Qualcomm Inc QCOM.O dropped 2.30% after the chipmaker's
quarterly revenue and profit forecasts missed Wall Street
targets.
Among other decliners, the energy sector .SPNY slid 0.96%,
the most among the 11 major S&P sectors, as oil prices declined
as rising U.S. output helped keep the market well supplied and
on Fed commentary on further rate cuts. O/R
Shares of oil major Exxon Mobil Corp XOM.N dropped 0.54%,
ahead of its earnings report on Friday.
Investors awaited the Labor Department's nonfarm payrolls
data to gauge the strength of the domestic labor market. The
report is expected to show private payrolls added 164,000 jobs
in July, according to a Reuters survey, after surging by 224,000
in June.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.69-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 2.14-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 19 new 52-week highs and five new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 59 new highs and 53 new lows.