S&P 500 takes a pause after trade-fueled rally

By Arjun Panchadar

(Reuters) - The S&P 500 took a breather on Tuesday after expectations of a U.S.-China trade deal propelled the three main U.S. stock indexes to record highs in the previous session.

The benchmark index and Nasdaq have risen in seven of the past 10 sessions. Losses in the S&P 500 healthcare <.SPXHC> and real estate <.SPLRCR> more than offset gains in financials <.SPSY>. Four of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were lower.

China is pushing President Donald Trump to remove more tariffs as part of the "phase one" deal, which may be signed this month, according to latest reports.

Apart from hopes of a resolution to the trade war, a largely better-than-expected third-quarter earnings season, the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut and an upbeat October jobs report last week have fueled the recent Wall Street rally.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at record highs for the second consecutive session on Monday, while the Dow hit a record high for the first time since July.

"The market reacted strongly to the economic news last week, it reached new highs and you run into a little bit of resistance and you get some weakness in healthcare," said Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist at SlateStone Wealth LLC in New York.

"It causes some profit taking and that's all we have right now."

Over three quarters of the S&P 500 companies that have reported results so far have beaten profit expectations, Refinitiv data showed.

Further easing concerns of a slowdown in the domestic economy, data on Tuesday showed reading on the ISM services index improved to 54.7 in October from 52.6 in September, above expectations of 53.4, according to economists polled by Reuters.

A 2.3% rise in Boeing Co's shares provided the biggest boost to the blue-chip Dow Jones index after Chairman Dave Calhoun said the company's board believed CEO Dennis Muilenburg "has done everything right" following two fatal crashes involving its 737 MAX jet.

Helping the Nasdaq advance was Adobe Inc , which gained 3.8% as the Photoshop software maker raised its fourth-quarter digital media annualized recurring revenue target and gave a strong forecast for fiscal 2020.

At 12:58 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> was up 54.98 points, or 0.20%, at 27,517.09, the S&P 500 <.SPX> was down 0.87 points, or 0.03%, at 3,077.40 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was up 11.49 points, or 0.14%, at 8,444.69.

Among other stocks, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc jumped 9.5% after the drugmaker beat quarterly profit estimates.

Kroger Co surged about 11% after the supermarket chain forecast 2020 profit and comparable sales ahead of Wall Street estimates.

Uber Technologies Inc fell 8.8% as the ride-hailing service posted a bigger third-quarter loss.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.17-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 1.20-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 57 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 137 new highs and 29 new lows.

(Reporting by Arjun Panchadar and Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Sriraj Kalluvila and Shounak Dasgupta)

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