Wall Street slightly lower as Apple weighs

By Tanya Agrawal

REUTERS - Wall Street was slightly lower in late morning trading on Monday as Apple dragged down all the three major indexes following a rating cut and ahead of its developer conference.

The iPhone maker's stock was down 0.80 percent at $154.28 after brokerage Pacific Crest downgraded it to "sector weight" from "overweight".

There is also a possibility that the company may take the unusual step of introducing a new product at the five-day conference, which begins later in the day.

Investors appeared to have shrugged off weekend attacks in London that came just days before Britain's general national election on Thursday.

Opinion polls in the past week have put Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives ahead, though with a narrowing lead over the Labour opposition.

U.S. stocks continue to hover at record levels, helped by a strong first-quarter corporate earnings season, with Wall Street closing at record levels for the second straight session on Friday despite a lukewarm jobs report.

The employment report, however, could raise concerns about the economy's health after gross domestic product growth slowed in the first quarter.

Data on Monday showed services sector activity slowed in May as new orders tumbled, while orders for manufactured goods fell in April for the first time in five months.

Despite the disappointing data, market participants still expect the Federal Reserve to raise rates at its June 13-14 meeting, with traders expecting a 95.6-percent chance of a quarter-point hike, according to CME Group's Fed Watch tool.

"We're coming off a pretty strong rally and, in the absence of news to change that direction, we would anticipate that it would continue in that fashion," said Bill Northey, chief investment officer at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Helena, Montana.

"Plus anytime you have an attack, such as the one in the UK, it causes some market disruption. This has been a resilient equity market and as we go through the course of this week, economic data and the Fed will drive the market."

At 11:00 a.m. ET (1500 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.33 points, or 0.01 percent, at 21,204.96 and the S&P 500 was down 1.41 points, or 0.05 percent, at 2,437.66.

The Nasdaq Composite was down 4.28 points, or 0.07 percent, at 6,301.52. It had hit an all-time high of 6301.61.

Eight of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were lower, with the health index's 0.42 percent fall leading the decliners.

The financial sector's 0.62 percent rise led the gainers, with Goldman Sachs' 0.8 percent rise boosting the Dow.

Alphabet hit the $1,000 mark and provided the second biggest boost to the S&P and Nasdaq.

Herbalife was down 6.2 percent at $69.32 after the nutritional supplement maker lowered its sales outlook for the current quarter.

Oil prices fell more than 1 percent on concerns that the cutting of ties with Qatar by top crude exporter Saudi Arabia and other Arab states could hamper a global deal to reduce oil production. [O/R]

Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,706 to 1,063. On the Nasdaq, 1,605 issues fell and 1,087 advanced.

The S&P 500 index showed 28 new 52-week highs and 11 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 82 new highs and 70 new lows.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)