US STOCKS-Wall St slips as trade tensions mount; Fed minutes awaited

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* Qualcomm slumps after judge rules against co's practices
* Lowe's, Nordstrom fall on disappointing FY forecasts
* Fed's minutes from April meeting due at 2:00 pm ET
* Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors trading lower
* Indexes off: Dow 0.25%, S&P 0.22%, Nasdaq 0.31%

(Updates prices, adds comments)
By Shreyashi Sanyal and Sruthi Shankar
May 22 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks dipped on Wednesday, as trade
tensions were heightened on reports that Washington could impose
sanctions on another Chinese company, while investors awaited
the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest policy
meeting.
The reports come after the United States temporarily eased
curbs on Huawei Technologies Co Ltd HWT.UL , calming investor
nerves on Tuesday over a hit to technology sector earnings from
the Trump administration's decision last week to add the Chinese
telecoms equipment maker to a trade blacklist.
However, likely similar curbs on Chinese video surveillance
firm Hikvision soured sentiment on Wednesday. "Both sides feel they've leverage right now to take harder
position and everybody's going to need to stay safe, but markets
are willing to give some space on the belief that a deal is
going to happen," said Phil Guarco, global investment specialist
at J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Miami.
"The one worry about the deal not getting done is that China
is stimulating its economy and the U.S. economy is doing very
well."
The daily exchanges between the United States and China have
kept investors on edge and knocked the benchmark S&P 500 index
.SPX 3.4% off its all-time high hit on May 1.
Also weighing was Qualcomm Inc's QCOM.O 10.6% plunge,
which contributed the most to a 0.35% drop in the S&P 500
technology sector .SPLRCT .
A federal judge ruled that the chipmaker illegally
suppressed competition in the market for smartphone chips by
threatening to cut off supplies and extracting excessive
licensing fees. At 11:18 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 63.57 points, or 0.25%, at 25,813.76. The S&P 500
.SPX was down 6.17 points, or 0.22%, at 2,858.19 and the
Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was down 24.20 points, or 0.31%, at
7,761.53.
The Fed is expected to release at 2 p.m. ET (1800
GMT)minutes from its two-day policy meeting in late April when
it held interest rates steady.
Fed's St. Louis chief James Bullard, a voter in the
rate-setting committee this year, said on Wednesday further
weakness in inflation could prompt the central bank to cut
rates, even if economic growth maintains its momentum.

The communication services index .SPLRCL was among four of
the 11 major S&P sectors trading higher, lifted by a 2.3% gain
in Netflix Inc NFLX.O .
Retailers wrapped up the first-quarter earnings season on a
downbeat note, with Lowe's Cos Inc LOW.N falling 10.6% after
the home improvement chain cut its full-year profit forecast.

Lowe's was the biggest drag on the consumer discretionary
sector .SPLRCD , down 0.55%.
Nordstrom Inc JWN.N declined 8.8% after the department
store operator reduced its full-year sales and profit forecasts.
Retailer Target Corp TGT.N jumped 9.5%, the most among S&P
500 companies, after its quarterly same-store sales and profit
beat estimates. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.86-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 2.05-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 17 new 52-week highs and five new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 32 new highs and 67 new lows.