US STOCKS-Wall St steadies with indexes on track for weekly gains; FedEx jumps

By Purvi Agarwal and Sukriti Gupta

Sept 19 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were muted in choppy trading on Friday, with the Nasdaq easing from a record high, while FedEx rose as the parcel delivery firm posted upbeat quarterly results.

FedEx FDX.N gained 2.7% after reporting quarterly profit and revenue above analyst estimates on Thursday, as cost-cutting and strength in domestic deliveries helped offset weaker international volumes.

Apple AAPL.O added 2% following a price target raise from J.P. Morgan, while Tesla TSLA.O was up 1.8% after a report of Baird's upgrade on the stock to "outperform" from "neutral".

Their gains boosted the S&P 500 technology .SPLRCT and consumer discretionary sectors .SPLRCD, up 0.3% and 0.5% respectively. These were the only sectors trading higher.

Industrials <.SPLRCI> and energy .SPNY indexes led broader declines.

"We're still calming from the Fed decision, what the expectation for monetary policy and the labor outlook is and how they're going to coexist," said Kevin Gordon, senior investment strategist at Charles Schwab.

"It's probably time for the market to sit back and reassess after a really strong rally."

At 11:37 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 6.86 points, or 0.01%, to 46,149.28, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 2.79 points, or 0.04%, to 6,634.75 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 39.15 points, or 0.18%, to 22,510.20.

The small-cap Russell 2000 index .RUT was down 0.7% after briefly hitting an intraday record high on the day. It notched a record close on Thursday, its first since November 2021.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were set for their third week of gains, marked by the Fed's first rate cut of 2025 and indications of further monetary policy easing. Revived optimism around AI-linked stock trading also added to the rise.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping spoke by phone, after which Trump said that the two leaders made progress on a TikTok deal and agreed to a face-to-face meeting as soon as next month in South Korea.

"To the extent it's (the call) wrapped into some broader discussion around trade talks and tariffs ... that's probably where the more important factor is," Gordon added.

Analysts expect some volatility from "triple witching", where options and futures linked to stock indexes and individual stocks are set to expire on the third Friday of the last month of the quarter.

Wall Street's three main indexes are in positive territory so far in September - a month deemed historically bad for U.S. equities. The benchmark S&P 500 has shed 1.4% on average in the month since 2000, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari on Friday said he feels that quarter-point sized rate cuts at each of the Fed's final two meetings of the year will be appropriate.

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly is set to speak later in the day.

In other stocks, Lennar LEN.N fell 3% after the homebuilder reported a lower third-quarter profit and forecast fourth-quarter home deliveries below estimates.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.17-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.78-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 17 new 52-week highs and 10 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 106 new highs and 34 new lows.