(Corrects to Monday from Friday in first paragraph)
By Yashaswini Swamynathan
REUTERS - Wall Street was little changed in late morning trading on Monday as a bounce in healthcare shares struggled to offset declines in energy and materials stocks.
Oil prices reversed course to drop more than 2 percent after traders took in their stride the impact of wildfires on Canada's oil output and after another inventory build at the U.S. hub for crude futures.
A bigger-than-expected drop in China's imports and exports in April pointed to weak demand in the world's second-biggest economy and weighed on materials stocks.
Caterpillar's 3.2 percent drop weighed the most on the Dow, while Chevron's 2.3 percent fall dragged on the S&P.
Five of the 10 major S&P sectors were lower, led by the energy, down 2 percent, and materials, down 1 percent, indexes. The health index's 1.02 percent rise lead the advancers, buoyed by Allergan's 7 percent gain.
"It seems like the shadow of higher rates and weakening economy doesn't help stocks and that's what we are seeing," said Mohannad Aama, managing director of Beam Capital in New York.
"I think we are seeing a continuation of what's been going on since last week, which is the effect of the Federal Reserve's meeting, what we've seen with the job's report on Friday and what's going on with the earnings season. Combining them it is a not-so-clear picture."
U.S. stocks broke a three-day losing streak to close higher on Friday after investors focused on the positive aspects of a generally disappointing April jobs report.
A Reuters survey following the jobs report showed that Wall Street's top banks have all but written off the chance of a June rate increase. Most now see the rate hike coming in September.
At 11:28 a.m. ET (1528 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average was down 61.25 points, or 0.35 percent, at 17,679.38 and the S&P 500 was down 1.23 points, or 0.06 percent, at 2,055.91.
The Nasdaq Composite was up 9.49 points, or 0.2 percent, at 4,745.65, helped by a 0.7 percent rise in Apple and a 2 percent gain in the Nasdaq biotech index.
Shares of Lending Club tumbled 26 percent to $5.25 after the CEO of the world's biggest online lending platform resigned following an internal probe.
Krispy Kreme jumped 24.3 percent to $20.95 after agreeing to be taken private for $1.35 billion.
JD.com slid 9.7 percent to $22.74 after the e-commerce company reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,746 to 1,114. On the Nasdaq, 1,345 issues rose and 1,339 fell.
The S&P 500 index showed 29 new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 33 new highs and 34 new lows.
(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr and Savio D'Souza)
