Losses in GE keep Wall St in check

23 October 2017: U.S. stocks traded in a narrow range on Monday, with losses in industrial shares led by GE offsetting gains in healthcare and technology sectors.

General Electric was on track to post its worst single-day loss in more than six years, after a bunch of brokerages cut their price targets on the stock, citing higher chances of a dividend cut at the industrial conglomerate.

Still, the indexes were near their all-time highs on a steady stream of upbeat third-quarter earnings and hopes that President Donald Trump's tax plans may move forward after the Senate's approval of a budget resolution on Friday.

Nearly three-quarters of the 97 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far have beaten expectations.

"Earnings is the dominant theme of the market, with talks of tax reforms swirling around on the outside," said Michael Antonelli, managing director of institutional sales trading at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.

"It's going to be all about corporate commentary and how they are looking at things in the next three to six months."

World stocks were lifted to an all-time high after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's election victory raised hopes of continued market friendly monetary policies and economic reforms.

Investors are also waiting for news on the next Federal Reserve chief. Trump told reporters on Monday he is "very, very close" to making his decision on who should chair the Federal Reserve.

At 12:36 a.m. ET (1636 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 17.3 points, or 0.07 percent, at 23,345.93, the S&P 500 was down 1.44 points, or 0.05 percent, at 2,573.77 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 9.56 points, or 0.14 percent, at 6,619.50.

Technology stocks rose, led by gains in Apple and Intel, while the healthcare index was boosted by gains in Johnson & Johnson and Celgene .

Arconic slumped nearly 10 percent after the specialty metals maker missed profit estimates and announced a new chief executive.

The energy index also fell 0.43 percent, driven by losses in Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and Halliburton, which reported results on Monday.

Hasbro dipped 8.90 percent after the toymaker's forecast for the holiday season fell below estimates as Toys'R'Us bankruptcy began to hurt its operations. Shares of Mattel also fell 2.82 percent.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,693 to 1,147. On the Nasdaq, 1,743 issues fell and 1,096 advanced.