US STOCKS-US stocks dip as Intel plunges, geopolitical concerns linger

By Sruthi Shankar and Pranav Kashyap

Jan 23 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Friday, putting Wall street's main's indexes on track for a second consecutive weekly slide as Intel plunged on a downbeat outlook and lingering geopolitical tensions sapped risk appetite.

Stocks had rebounded in the past two sessions following Tuesday's sharp selloff triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to impose tariffs on European allies until Washington was allowed to buy Greenland.

Trump later tempered tariff threats and ruled out taking Greenland by force, but the S&P 500 .SPX, Nasdaq .IXIC and the Dow .DJI were still set to close the week lower. Safe-haven flows persisted, sending gold to a record high. GOL/

A big drag on Friday was chipmaker Intel INTC.O, which slid 14.9%. The company forecast quarterly revenue and profit below market estimates, saying it struggled to satisfy demand for its server chips used in AI data centers. Its shares have surged about 50% since the start of the year.

An index of semiconductors .SOX fell 1.6%, off its record high hit in the previous session, while Wall Street's fear gauge .VIX ticked up after falling for the past two sessions.

"Earnings season has been good, but there have been one or two stocks that have not given a rosy guidance and they fell accordingly as investors took action. Guidance now is more critical than ever," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities.

"Investors will stay cautious because we have not only earnings, but also the Fed. We don't expect any change, but it's the question of what they say in their communique."

At 09:48 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 320.71 points, or 0.65%, to 49,063.30, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 14.68 points, or 0.21%, to 6,898.78 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC lost 36.50 points, or 0.16%, to 23,399.52.

FED AWAITED

The Federal Reserve is expected to hold rates at 3.5%–3.75% next week, but investors will comb through the statement and Chair Jerome Powell's remarks for signals on what is next. The CMEGroup's FedWatch tool shows markets penciling in the first cut for June.

U.S. business activity was steady in January, as an improvement in new orders was offset by a lackluster labor market, S&P Global flash PMI figures showed.

Many of the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks, including Apple AAPL.O, Tesla TSLA.O and Microsoft MSFT.O, are set to report earnings next week. Their outlooks will be closely watched to see how much juice remains in the growth stories which so far have supported their sky-high valuations.

Driven by a strong U.S. economy and expectations of interest rate cuts this year, the market rally has broadened beyond the megacap names to other pockets. The small-cap Russell 2000 .RUT and the Dow Jones Transports indexes .DJT touched record highs on Thursday.

Among other movers, Nvidia NVDA.O rose 1.4% after Bloomberg News reported Chinese officials have told Alibaba 9988.HK, Tencent 0700.HK and ByteDance that they can prepare orders for Nvidia's H200 AI chips.

U.S.-listed shares of miners such as Hecla Mining HL.N and Coeur Mining CDE.N rose 0.6% and 0.3%, respectively, as silver prices XAG= touched record highs and neared the $100-per-ounce mark for the first time.