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Microsoft gains on upbeat cloud sales forecast
PayPal, Tesla among top boosts on Nasdaq
Twitter drops to seven-month low
3M drops on lowering profit outlook
Dow down 0.29%, S&P 500 off 0.06%, Nasdaq up 0.31%
Updates to open
By Shreyashi Sanyal and Arjun Panchadar
Oct 24 (Reuters) - A rise in shares of Microsoft and PayPal boosted the Nasdaq on Thursday, but poor earnings reports from Twitter and 3M dragged down the S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes, taking the shine off what has been an upbeat earnings season so far.
Twitter Inc TWTR.N plunged about 18% to a seven-month low after the social media platform posted disappointing quarterly results.
The wider communication services sector .SPLRCL fell 0.9%, logging the biggest decline among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors.
Post-it notes maker 3M MMM.N dropped 5.16% and was on course for its worst day in six months after lowering its full-year profit forecast.
The market is reacting to "micro volatility, which is driven by individual company names, and macro calm around trade," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.
Third-quarter earnings reports have taken center stage as investors try to gauge the fallout from a drawn out U.S.-China trade war, which has already shown up in the domestic economy.
The narrative so far has been fairly positive, with only a small crop of companies including industrial giant Caterpillar CAT.N, toymaker Hasbro Inc HAS.O and chipmaker Texas Instruments TXN.O blaming the tariff moves for denting results.
Of the 124 S&P 500 companies that reported results up to Wednesday, more than 82% topped earnings estimates, according to Refinitiv data. The S&P 500 index .SPX came within a hair's breadth of its record high this week.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Thursday the phase-one trade deal between Washington and Beijing would include much of an agreement scrapped in May around intellectual property.
At 10:22 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was down 77.95 points, or 0.29%, at 26,756.00, the S&P 500 .SPX was down 1.87 points, or 0.06%, at 3,002.65.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 25.06 points, or 0.31%, at 8,144.85.
Tech giant Microsoft Corp MSFT.O gained 1.82% as its outlook for cloud computing services surpassed analysts' expectations, while PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL.O rose 7.73% on a strong full-year earnings forecast.
Lam Research Corp LRCX.O jumped 10.6%, boosting the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index .SOX by 1.3% after the chip equipment maker forecast strong results for the December quarter.
Dow Inc DOW.N gained 2% after the company exceeded profit estimates, while electric car maker Tesla Inc TSLA.O surged 15.12% on a surprise quarterly profit.
Other high profile companies including Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O, Intel Corp INTC.O and Visa Inc V.N are slated to report after markets close on Thursday.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.12-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 1.26-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 25 new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 45 new highs and 21 new lows.
(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr and Anil S'Silva)
((Shreyashi.Sanyal@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 8780))
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
