* Walmart (NYSE:WMT) gains after Q2 comp sales beat
* Cisco tumbles after forecast disappoints
* U.S. retail sales surge in July in boost to economy
* Dow up 0.08%, S&P rises 0.21%, Nasdaq flat
(Changes comment, updates prices)
By Amy Caren Daniel
Aug 15 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks swung between gains and
losses on Thursday as strong July retail sales and upbeat
Walmart earnings eased fears of a recession, but mixed reports
on trade and Cisco's dismal forecast kept investors on edge.
The Commerce Department said retail sales rose 0.7% in July,
well above expectations of a 0.3% rise, as consumers bought a
range of goods even as they cut back on motor vehicle purchases.
"Data still indicates that the consumer is in a relatively
good shape, it points to the fact that even with an inverted
yield curve that we saw yesterday, a recession is not coming so
fast," said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset
Management in Chicago.
"The trade news is not linear. It's very hard to guess what
the next step is going to be and it's impacting companies like
Cisco, so the longer the trade issue lingers, the harder it is
going be for companies to show top- and bottom-line growth."
Wall Street's main indexes slumped 3% on Wednesday, with the
blue-chip Dow index .DJI recording its worst day this year, as
recession fears gripped the market after the U.S. Treasury yield
curve inverted for the first time in 12 years. US/
Walmart Inc WMT.N shares rose 5% after the retailer
reported second-quarter U.S. comparable sales that beat
estimates and boosted its earnings forecast for the year.
The company's strong report lifted the consumer staples
sector .SPLRCS up 1.2%, the most among the S&P sectors.
In contrast, Cisco Systems Inc CSCO.O dropped 7.6% and was
the biggest drag on all three major indexes, after the Dow
component blamed the bruising U.S.-China trade war for poor
quarterly forecasts.
Trade worries have plagued financial markets for at least a
year, fuelling fears of a recession and prompting traders to
raise their bets on three rate cuts this year, including one in
September.
The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX is now about 6% away from its
all-time high hit in July.
China's finance ministry said earlier in the day that it
would retaliate to the latest U.S. tariffs. However, a
spokeswoman for the ministry later said, "We hope the U.S. will
meet China halfway, and implement the consensus of the two heads
of the two countries in Osaka." At 11:00 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 20.21 points, or 0.08%, at 25,499.63 and the S&P 500
.SPX was up 5.98 points, or 0.21%, at 2,846.58. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 1.39 points, or 0.02%, at 7,772.55.
General Electric (NYSE:GE) GE.N plunged 9.9%, and was on pace to
post its biggest one-day drop in a decade, after a whistleblower
in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme case alleged that company
financial filings masked the depths of its problems.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.44-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.09-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded five new 52-week highs and 43 new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 13 new highs and 163 new lows.