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* J&J recalls baby powder after asbestos find
* Boeing misled FAA on 737 MAX safety -Reuters
* China's GDP growth hits 30-year low
* Earnings beats: Amex, Coca-Cola, Kansas City Southern
* Indexes down: Dow 0.95%, S&P 500 0.39%, Nasdaq 0.83%
(Updates to market close)
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Wall Street fell on Friday as
negative headlines about Johnson & Johnson and Boeing, along
with bleak economic data from China, soured investor risk
appetite and offset generally positive corporate earnings.
All three major U.S. stock averages ended the session in the
red, but the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq posted weekly gains. The
blue-chip Dow was nominally lower than last week's close.
Boeing Co BA.N and Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N shares led
both the S&P 500's and the Dow's declines.
Boeing dropped 6.8% after Reuters reported that text
messages between two employees suggested the planemaker misled
the Federal Aviation Administration about the safety of the
grounded 737 MAX aircraft. Johnson & Johnson announced it would recall baby powder in
the United States after regulators found trace amounts of
asbestos in a sample, sending its shares falling 6.2%.
Growth of China's gross domestic product slowed to its
weakest pace in nearly 30 years as the bruising trade war with
the United States took its toll, stoking fears of slowdown
contagion. The International Monetary Fund has lowered its forecast for
global growth this year to 3%, which would mark the slowest
expansion since the financial crisis. "There's no question that there's signs out there that the
economy is weakening," said Peter Cardillo, chief market
economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
Today's market weakness "has to do with (GDP) news out of
China, Boeing and Johnson & Johnson," Cardillo added, saying
"market sentiment in terms of earnings is positive."
Third-quarter earnings season has hit full stride, with 73
companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 83.6% have
come in above average estimates, according to Refinitiv data.
Still, analysts currently see S&P 500 earnings dropping by
3.1% compared with last year, which would mark the first
contraction since the earnings recession that ended mid-2016.
Schlumberger NV SLB.N gained 1.3% after the oilfield
services company posted its largest quarterly loss ever as a
result of a $12 billion charge as Chief Executive Olivier Le
Peuch moved to shift focus toward software and services.
American Express Co AXP.N reported better-than-expected
third-quarter profit as consumers boosted their spending. Still,
the credit card issuer's shares dipped 2.0%. Coca-Cola Co's KO.N revenue beat expectations and an
upbeat forecast gave its shares a 1.8% boost. Kansas City Southern KSU.N jumped 7.3% after the railroad
operator also beat profit expectations, on increased petroleum
shipments to Mexico. Next week, market participants look forward to high profile
results from Procter & Gamble Co PG.N , United Parcel Service
Inc UPS.N Caterpillar Inc CAT.N , Boeing, Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O , Ford Motor Co F.N , 3M Co MMM.N , Twitter Inc
TWTR.N , Amazon.com AMZN.O , and others.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 255.68 points,
or 0.95%, to 26,770.2, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 11.75 points, or
0.39%, to 2,986.2 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 67.31
points, or 0.83%, to 8,089.54.
Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, seven closed in the
red, with tech .SPLRCT , communications services .SPLRCL and
industrials .SPLRCI suffering the biggest percentage declines.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.03-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.41-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 29 new 52-week highs and two new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 51 new highs and 59 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.24 billion shares, compared
with the 6.55 billion average over the last 20 trading days.