US stocks are mixed before Trump-Xi trade meeting

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are wavering Friday ahead of the highly-anticipating trade meeting between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping of China. Investors have long hoped the two will use their meeting at the Group of 20 summit to start resolving the trade dispute between the two countries.

Tech and health care companies are making small gains while internet companies are down. Energy companies slipped as crude oil briefly dropped under $50 a barrel for the first time since October 2017.

KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 index added 2 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,740 at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 36 points, or 0.1 percent, to 25,303. The Nasdaq composite gained 6 points, or 0.1 percent, to 7,279. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks edged down less than 1 point to 1,524.

Stocks have rallied this week after falling to a six-month low last Friday. The S&P 500 is up 1.1 percent this month, but it's still 6.5 percent away from the all-time high it set in late September. Among other issues, that drop reflects investors' pessimism that the U.S. and China will resolve their differences without causing damage to the global economy.

The two sides have been sparring for months over technology policy and other trade issues. The U.S. has announced tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports so far, with the tax rate on many products set to rise Jan. 1, while China is taxing $110 billion in U.S. goods. Wall Street is concerned that the lingering questions about tariffs and other trade issues will keep businesses from spending money.

THE LEADERS: Tech and health care companies climbed. Chipmaker Intel added 1.9 percent to $48.60 and Nvidia rose 2.9 percent to $161.92. Both companies had slumped on Thursday. IBM jumped 2 percent to $123.95.

Biotech drugmaker AbbVie rose 2.5 percent to $92.15 and Gilead Sciences rallied 2.6 percent to $71.54.

PVH, the owner of the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands, gained 1.1 percent to $11.01 after it gave a strong profit forecast. Amazon rose 0.6 percent to $1,684 and Home Depot climbed 1.3 percent to $178.02.

UNWANTED GUEST: Marriott said the information of as many as 500 million guests at Starwood hotels has been compromised by a data breach that started in 2014 and September 2018. The company said the credit card information of some guests may have been taken, along with other personal details. The company's stock lost 5.6 percent to $114.96.

TESTING, TESTING: Medical lab company LabCorp skidded 10.7 percent to $144.49 after cutting its profit and sales forecasts. On Thursday LabCorp fell 2 percent and rival Quest Diagnostics dropped 9.3 percent after Quest did the same, saying testing volumes were down. Quest slipped 0.3 percent to $87.66 Friday.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude fell more than 3 percent in morning trading and briefly slipped below $50 a barrel. Later it was down 0.3 percent to $51.27 a barrel in New York. Brent crude lost 0.5 percent to $59.62 a barrel in London.

Oil prices have plunged since early October as supplies have built up, partly because the U.S. agreed to hold off on sanctions for countries that import oil from Iran. Investors are also worried that a slowdown in global economic growth will reduce demand for fuels. U.S. crude is up about $1 this week and could break a seven-week string of losses.

GAME OVER: Video game retailer GameStop skidded 6.7 percent to $13.66 after it cut its annual profit and sales forecasts. The company said some key titles didn't sell as well as it hoped, and promotions and sales of used games weren't as strong as expected.

BONDS: Bond prices rose further. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.02 percent from 3.03 percent.

CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 113.56 yen from 113.43 yen. The euro fell to $1.1322 from $1.1389.

OVERSEAS: The FTSE 100 index in Britain shed 0.8 percent and Germany's DAX lost 0.4 percent. France's CAC 40 fell less than 0.1 percent.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index climbed 0.4 percent and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.2 percent. South Korea's Kospi fell 0.8 percent.

____

AP Markets Writer Marley Jay can be reached at http://twitter.com/MarleyJayAP