US STOCKS-Wall St slips with Apple, as hopes of sharp rate cut fade

* Apple falls on downgrade, weighs on tech
* Boeing slips as Saudi airline dumps MAX order
* Indexes down: Dow 0.5%, S&P 0.6%, Nasdaq 0.8%

(Updates to late afternoon)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, July 8 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Monday,
pressured by a drop in Apple Inc following a broker downgrade,
and as investors toned down expectations of an aggressive
interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve later this month.
Apple Inc AAPL.O fell 2.1% and was the biggest drag on all
three main Wall Street indexes. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded
the iPhone maker's shares to "sell" from "neutral," and said it
expected the company to face "fundamental deterioration" in the
next six to 12 months.
The technology .SPLRCT index was down 0.8%, while the
healthcare index .SPXHC dropped 0.9%, weighed down by
President Donald Trump's recent statement about an upcoming
executive order that would lower prescription drug prices.
Surprisingly strong U.S. jobs data on Friday has forced
traders to temper hopes of a sharp rate cut at the central
bank's July 30-31 policy meeting, even as a reduction is still
expected.
"That's kind of concerning the market if just from the
standpoint of the market's done well and now it's a matter of,
were Friday's numbers too positive, and might we not get the
cuts investors were hoping for," said Alan Lancz, president of
Alan B. Lancz & Associates Inc, an investment advisory firm,
based in Toledo, Ohio.
"That's put a cloud over the market as well."
Investors might get an opportunity to gauge near-term
monetary policy thinking during Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's
semi-annual testimony to the U.S. Congress on July 10-11. Also
ahead are the central bank's June meeting minutes, scheduled for
release on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 140.12 points,
or 0.52%, to 26,782, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 16.9 points, or
0.57%, to 2,973.51 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
68.69 points, or 0.84%, to 8,093.10.
Investor attention is also expected to turn to the start of
the second-quarter earnings season next week. Profits for S&P
500 companies are expected to have dipped 0.1% from a year ago,
according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Boeing Co BA.N fell 1.5% after Saudi Arabian budget
airline flyadeal said it would not proceed with a provisional
$5.9 billion order for the planemaker's grounded 737 MAX
aircraft, instead opting for a fleet of Airbus A320 jets.
Symantec Corp SYMC.O rose 2.8% after Jefferies said the
cybersecurity firm is a "logical financial acquisition" amid
reports Broadcom Inc AVGO.O is in advanced talks for a deal.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.85-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.46-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 19 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 37 new highs and 46 new lows.