US STOCKS-Wall Street rally cools after two-day climb; Alphabet jumps

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* Alphabet set for best day in nine months
* Spotify drops as outlook disappoints
* Amgen slips as earnings forecast falls short of estimates
* Indexes: Dow down 0.17%, S&P up 0.10%, Nasdaq up 0.10%

(Adds comment, details; updates prices)
By Devik Jain and Medha Singh
Feb 3 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq treaded water
in choppy trading on Wednesday after two days of sharp gains
while Alphabet Inc's shares headed for their best day in nine
months following its strong quarterly results.
Alphabet GOOGL.O jumped 7.3% as it benefited from
lockdowns that drove retail and other advertisers online.
The Google owner's shares pushed the communication services
index .SPLRCL 2.1% higher to an all-time high. Five of the 11
major S&P sectors were in the positive territory, including
economy-linked energy .SPNY , financials .SPSY and materials
.SPLRCM .
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O dipped 0.4% as Jeff Bezos' surprise
move to step down as chief executive quashed optimism about
bumper quarterly results. However, analysts were upbeat on the
promotion of its cloud computing head to the top job.
About 83% of reports from S&P 500 companies so far have
surpassed analysts' earnings expectations, with 97% of results
from technology companies beating estimates, according to IBES
data from Refinitiv.
The S&P 500 has climbed about 3% in the past two sessions as
investors monitored talks over the next round of fiscal stimulus
following a bout of market volatility last week due to a retail
trading frenzy.
"The market really just needs to take a breather before
resuming the uptrend ... investors are getting a handle over
what the stimulus is going to look like moving forward," said
Thomas Hayes, managing member at Great Hill Capital LLC in New
York.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday will meet
congressional Democrats preparing to advance his $1.9 trillion
COVID-19 relief plan despite Republican pushback. Videogame retailer GameStop Corp GME.N rose about 3%,
clawing back some gains after nearly halving in value on Tuesday
on the back of a social media-driven trading rollercoaster ride.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is calling a meeting of
top officials, including from the Securities and Exchange
Commission and the Federal Reserve, this week to discuss market
volatility.
At 11:25 a.m. ET, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 3.90 points, or
0.10%, to 3,830.21 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 13.60
points, or 0.10%, to 13,626.37.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 0.17%, weighed
down by a 3.3% fall in shares of Amgen Inc AMGN.O after the
U.S. biotech forecast 2021 earnings below estimates and said it
had paused or halted enrollment for clinical trials of three
cancer drugs. On the economic front, the ADP Report showed hiring by U.S.
private employers rebounded by 174,000 in January after a drop
in December. A more comprehensive jobs report is expected on
Friday. A separate ISM survey showed U.S. services industry activity
raced to its highest level in nearly two years in January.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.1-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.1-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted seven new 52-week highs and no new lows
while the Nasdaq recorded 186 new highs and five new lows.