US STOCKS-S&P 500 climbs as investors await tech earnings

Updates with afternoon trading

By Noel Randewich

July 28 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 climbed on Tuesday as gains in Boeing and Coca-Cola helped offset tumbling chip stocks ahead of quarterly reports from Apple and other tech companies this week.

Global markets have been volatile this month as investors worry that Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and other technology heavyweights may be overspending on AI data centers as they race to dominate the emerging technology.

Microsoft MSFT.O rose 2.6% ahead of its report on Wednesday, while Amazon AMZN.O climbed 0.1% ahead of its results on Thursday.

Chipmakers that have benefited from heavy AI spending added to recent losses, with the PHLX index .SOX losing 4.3%. It has fallen over 20% from its record-high close on June 22, and it remains up 56% in 2026.

Apple AAPL.O rose 0.8%, lifting its stock market value to $5 trillion for the first time.

The S&P 500 healthcare .SPXHC and consumer staples .SPLRCS indexes each rose more than 2%, while declining chipmakers kept the tech index .SPLRCT down 1.1%.

"What has been behind the move into these non-tech names? Part of it is value," said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird in Louisville, Kentucky. "GDP is solid, the labor market continues to churn along and, in a lot of places, there's evidence that consumer spending is reaccelerating."

Coca-Cola KO.N rallied 4.5% after the beverage company raised its annual revenue and profit forecasts.

Boeing BA.N jumped 4.9% after the airplane maker generated positive free cash flow as its turnaround plans gained momentum.

FED DECISION IN FOCUS

The S&P 500 was up 0.24% at 7,430.73 points.

The Nasdaq declined 0.21% to 24,880.21 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.10% at 52,781.78 points.

The Federal Reserve is due to announce its interest-rate decision on Wednesday. Traders see a 71% probability that the central bank will leave rates unchanged and a 29% chance of a 25-basis-point rate hike, according to CME's FedWatch tool.

Higher rates could further pressure AI companies that are becoming more dependent on debt financing.

Corning GLW.N tumbled 15% after third-quarter sales forecasts missed estimates, while contract research firm IQVIA Holdings IQV.N jumped 12% after lifting its annual profit forecast.

Oil prices offered some broader relief, with Brent falling 4% to $84.58 a barrel on expectations that tensions in the Middle East and in Ukraine would ease as the White House hosted Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 .AD.SPX by a 2.6-to-one ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 62 new highs and one new low; the Nasdaq recorded 158 new highs and 182 new lows.

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian, Ragini Mathur and Utkarsh Tushar Hathi in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli, Maju Samuel, Rod Nickel)

((noel.randewich@thomsonreuters.com))