US STOCKS-Wall St pauses on waning consumer confidence, weak earnings, small stimulus, virus worries

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* Pfizer up after raising full-year forecast
* McDonald's, 3M fall on weak results
* Indexes mixed: Dow down 0.21%, S&P up 0.03%, Nasdaq down
0.29%

(New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments
to late afternoon; changes byline, adds NEW YORK dateline)
By Sinéad Carew
July 28 (Reuters) - The Dow and Nasdaq were in decline on
Tuesday while the S&P eked out a small gain as investors eyed
weakening consumer confidence and disappointing business updates
as well as a smaller than hoped for coronavirus aid plan from
U.S. Senate Republicans.
Weighing down the Dow, industrial conglomerate 3M Co MMM.N
dropped 4.5% after reporting a second-quarter plunge in demand
across its businesses and McDonald's Corp MCD.N fell 2.2%
after a surprisingly big drop in global same-store sales.
Data released in the morning showed U.S. consumer confidence
ebbed in July as coronavirus infections flared up across the
country. "It's a little bit of a lot of things," said Mark Luschini,
chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in
Philadelphia.
He called the consumer survey "unsettling" evidence that
"individuals are increasingly concerned about the recent surge
in coronavirus impacting their finances and their mobility."
Luschini also worried about prospects for a U.S. pandemic
aid package. The $1 trillion aid proposal announced on Monday by
Senate Republicans, four days before millions of Americans lose
unemployment benefits, met opposition by members of both
parties. "There has be tremendous compromise from both parties to get
to some agreement," he said, noting a congressional recess
scheduled for August adds deadline pressure.
"It's particularly critical at this time since the market is
really feeding off the largess that's been expended by fiscal
and monetary authorities," he said.
At 2:18 p.m. ET (1818 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average
.DJI fell 56.13 points, or 0.21%, to 26,528.64, the S&P 500
.SPX gained 1.11 points, or 0.03%, to 3,240.52 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC dropped 36.80 points, or 0.35%, to 10,499.46.
Materials .SPLRCM and Energy .SPNY were the biggest
percentage decliners of the S&P's 11 major sectors. Defensive
real estate .SPLRCR and utilities .SPLRCU sectors were the
biggest gainers.
The U.S. Federal Reserve was expected to reiterate its
accommodative stance when it wraps up its two-day policy meeting
on Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday, the Fed said it would extend
several lending facilities through year end, a sign the
pandemic's economic impact has been longer than expected.
Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far
this quarter, about 80% surpassed significantly lowered
forecasts for quarterly profit, according to Refinitiv IBES
data, An average of 71% companies beat profit estimates over the
past four quarters.
A focus this week will be results from Wall Street's
trillion-dollar market value companies - Apple Inc AAPL.O ,
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O and Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O - as well as
Facebook Inc FB.O .
Pfizer Inc PFE.N was up 4% after it raised its full-year
forecast on strong demand for cancer drugs and blood thinners.
Late on Monday, the drugmaker announced a pivotal global study
to evaluate a COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.16-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.21-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 24 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 52 new highs and 17 new lows.