US STOCKS-Wall St falls as CSX results point to damage from trade tensions

* Dow transports fall 3.2%
* Fed's Beige Book points to trade concerns
* Bank of America rises after earnings beat
* Abbott climbs after full-year profit raise
* Indexes down: Dow 0.25%, S&P 0.39%, Nasdaq 0.17%

(Updates to late afternoon, changes byline, adds NEW YORK to
dateline)
By April Joyner
NEW YORK, July 17 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes dipped on
Wednesday as weak results from CSX Corp stoked concerns that the
protracted trade war between the United States and China could
hurt corporate earnings.
CSX CSX.O shares tumbled 9.9% and were set for their
biggest one-day drop since 2008 after the rail freight company
posted lower-than-expected quarterly profit and cut its
full-year revenue forecast. Ongoing trade tensions have
contributed to a decline in truck and rail freight volumes in
the first half of 2019. The losses in CSX shares helped push down the S&P 500
industrials index .SPLRCI , whose 1.9% slide was the largest
among the S&P's 11 major sectors. The Dow Jones Transportation
Average .DJT fell 3.2%.
The Federal Reserve's Beige Book, a compendium of anecdotes
from U.S. businesses, also pointed to trade-related pressures on
transportation and manufacturing companies. Despite a pause on additional U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods,
"none of the underlying issues have really been put to bed,"
said Ed Campbell, portfolio manager and managing director at QMA
in Newark, New Jersey. "It's a risk factor that could come back
at any time."
Indeed, on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said he could
impose tariffs on additional Chinese goods at any time.
But persistent trade-related concerns are a critical factor
supporting expected interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve
later this month, Campbell said. The anticipation of rate cuts
has helped propel U.S. stocks to new highs in the past week.
"One of the things Trump is doing with trade is he's using
it as a cudgel against the Fed," he said. "The Fed is citing
uncertainty relating to trade as a reason they're open to
cutting rates."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 67.45 points,
or 0.25%, to 27,268.18, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 11.8 points, or
0.39%, to 2,992.24 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
13.76 points, or 0.17%, to 8,209.03.
In addition to CSX, shares of other rail companies fell.
Union Pacific Corp UNP.N shares dropped 6.2%, Norfolk Southern
Corp NSC.N shares slid 6.3% and Kansas City Southern KSU.N
shares slipped 4.4%.
Union Pacific and Kansas City Southern will report results
on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
Bank of America Corp BAC.N rose 2.0% after posting a
profit beat, though the company lowered its annual net interest
income forecast. Profit for S&P 500 companies is expected to rise 0.4% in the
second quarter from a year ago, according to Refinitiv IBES
data.
Abbott Laboratories ABT.N shares rose 3.3% after the
medical device maker topped quarterly profit estimates and
lifted its full-year adjusted earnings forecast. Qualcomm Inc QCOM.O shares rose 0.8% after the U.S.
Justice Department asked a federal appeals court to pause the
enforcement of a sweeping antitrust ruling against the mobile
chip supplier. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.55-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.34-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 25 new 52-week highs and two new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 51 new highs and 77 new lows.