Boeing lifts Dow, but chipmakers pose headwind

By Amy Caren Daniel

(Reuters) - The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose on Wednesday after Boeing raised its profit forecast, easing worries of slowing corporate profits, but a dim outlook from other China-reliant companies, including chipmakers, pressured the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.

Shares of Boeing, the single largest U.S. exporter to China, rose 3.5 percent after the planemaker topped analysts' forecast for quarterly profit and raised its full-year expectation.

Northrop Grumman rose 0.7 percent after the U.S. weapons maker raised its annual profit outlook.

The reports were in sharp contrast to those from industrial giants Caterpillar and 3M, whose disappointing forecasts on Tuesday sent U.S. stock markets into a tailspin.

Industrial stocks gained 0.23 percent, the most among the six major S&P sectors trading higher.

"Boeing is one of the larger weights in the Dow, so you've got some good news now that could allow the markets to start to trade higher," said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.

"A global slowdown is actually an issue at this point, and part of it translates into slow earnings and earnings growth and ultimately that means lower stock prices."

While earnings from S&P 500 companies are expected to have increased about 22 percent in the third quarter, 2018 is seen as a peak for the profit cycle, according to Refinitiv data.

Boeing's report is one among a slew of earnings this week to shine a spotlight on the risk of a slowdown in China, the world's No. 2 economy, spilling beyond its borders and eating into U.S. corporate profits.

The other group is chipmakers, struggling with oversupply and the threat of weakening demand for automobiles in China as well as further U.S. tariffs on Chinese products with chips.

Those challenges were highlighted by Texas Instruments , which fell 4.7 percent after a disappointing current-quarter forecast, and STMicroelectronics, which dropped 10.9 percent after signaling a slowing demand in China.

The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index fell 2.08 percent far outpacing the technology sector's 0.48 percent fall.

At 9:47 a.m. EDT the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 67.20 points, or 0.27 percent, at 25,258.63, the S&P 500 was down 2.06 points, or 0.08 percent, at 2,738.63 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 17.24 points, or 0.23 percent, at 7,420.30.

Ford, Microsoft and AMD are due to report after the closing bell, while Amazon, Alphabet and Intel will report on Thursday - marquee earnings that could influence sentiment on Wall Street.

United Parcel Service dropped 3.4 percent after the company said changing U.S. trade policies weighed on international results.

AT&T fell 5.9 percent after U.S. wireless carrier's quarterly profit missed analysts' estimates.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.36-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.08-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded one new 52-week highs and seven new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded four new highs and 73 new lows.

(Reporting by Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)