US STOCKS-Wall Street slips as stimulus deadlock weighs

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* Gilead up as remdesivir wins approval for treating COVID
in U.S.
* Intel slumps as quarterly margins fall
* American Express drops as profit falls short of estimates
* Indexes dip: Dow 0.53%, S&P 0.18%, Nasdaq 0.30%

(Updates to early afternoon)
By Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan
Oct 23 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes fell in Friday
afternoon trading as investors fretted over an impasse in
Washington on the new coronavirus aid bill, while turning
cautious ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election.
The biggest weight on the three indexes was a 10.5% slump in
chipmaker Intel Corp INTC.O after it reported a drop in
margins as consumers bought cheaper laptops and
pandemic-stricken businesses and governments clamped down on
data center spending. Uncertainty over the timeline of the relief legislature has
been weighing on Wall Street's major indexes, which were set to
cap a choppy week lower.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it still was possible
to get another round of COVID-19 aid before the election, but
that it was up to President Donald Trump to act, including
talking to reluctant Senate Republicans, if he wants it.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on the other hand said a
deal was possible if Pelosi was willing to compromise.
"We are kind of on a hold at this point ... still waiting
for something to come out of Washington," said Paul Nolte,
portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.
"Our base case is that we don't get a meaningful stimulus
package until after the election and probably not until first
quarter."
Meanwhile, a record 50 million Americans cast ballots,
eclipsing total early voting from the 2016 election. President
Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden debated on Thursday
for the last time to persuade the few remaining undecided voters
11 days before their contest. Heading into the debate, Trump trailed former vice president
Biden in national polls, but the contest is much tighter in some
battleground states where the election will likely be decided.
At 12:41 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 148.98 points, or 0.53%, at 28,214.68, the S&P 500
.SPX was down 6.23 points, or 0.18%, at 3,447.26. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 34.27 points, or 0.30%, at 11,471.74.
The energy index .SPNY dropped 1%, the most among 11 major
S&P sectors.
The third-quarter earnings season chugged along, with about
84% of the 135 S&P 500 companies that have reported so far
topping quarterly profit estimates, according to Refinitiv data.
Next week's focus will be on results from Big Tech companies
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Facebook Inc FB.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O
and Google-parent Alphabet GOOGL.O .
Gilead Sciences Inc GILD.O rose 0.9% as its antiviral drug
remdesivir became the first and only drug approved for treating
patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States.
American Express Co AXP.N dropped 3.7% as it missed
estimates for third-quarter profit after its customers spent
less during the COVID-19 fueled economic slowdown and it set
aside money for potential payment defaults. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.08-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a
1.07-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 25 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 50 new highs and 12 new lows.