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

* Dow transports tumble as rail companies slide
* 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 0.42%, S&P 500 0.65%, Nasdaq 0.46%

(Updates to market close)
By April Joyner
NEW YORK, July 17 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes fell 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 10.3%, 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. CSX was one of the biggest drags on the S&P 500 index, along
with Union Pacific Corp UNP.N and Berkshire Hathaway Inc
BRKb.N , which owns BNSF Railway. Union Pacific, whose shares
dropped 6.1%, reports results on Thursday.
The losses in shares of rail companies helped push down the
S&P 500 industrials index .SPLRCI , whose 2.2% slide was the
largest among the S&P's 11 major sectors. The Dow Jones
Transportation Average .DJT fell 3.6%.
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. "The trade concerns are such an uncertainty," said Stephen
Carl, principal and head of U.S. equity trading at the Williams
Capital Group in New York. "It could be a huge negative impact.
Costs are going to be coming from higher tariffs."
But persistent trade-related concerns are a critical factor
supporting expected interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve
later this month, said Ed Campbell, portfolio manager and
managing director at QMA in Newark, New Jersey. 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," Campbell 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 115.78 points,
or 0.42%, to 27,219.85, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 19.62 points, or
0.65%, to 2,984.42 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
37.59 points, or 0.46%, to 8,185.21.
Bank of America Corp BAC.N rose 0.7% after posting a
profit beat, though the company lowered its annual net interest
income forecast. Netflix Inc NFLX.O shares tumbled in aftermarket trade
after the company reported quarterly results. They were last
down nearly 11%.
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 3.1% after the
medical device maker topped quarterly profit estimates and
lifted its full-year adjusted earnings forecast. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.67-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.73-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 25 new 52-week highs and three new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 58 new highs and 86 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.1 billion shares, compared to
the 6.66 billion average for the full session over the last 20
trading days.