US STOCKS-Wall St inches lower as trade concerns linger

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* BofA, PNC, BNY Mellon rise on strong results
* Drug distributors seek to settle opioid lawsuits - report
* Retail sales fall for first time in 7 months in Sept
* Adobe drops on Citi downgrade
* Indexes off: Dow 0.03%, S&P 500 0.19%, Nasdaq 0.35%

(Updates to early afternoon, adds comments)
By Shreyashi Sanyal and Arjun Panchadar
Oct 16 (Reuters) - Wall Street edged lower on Wednesday, as
concerns over an escalation in the U.S.-China trade war and weak
economic indicators persisted, while a raft of upbeat results
underlined a solid start to the third-quarter earnings season.
U.S. stocks came under pressure after the U.S. House of
Representatives on Tuesday passed legislation related to
pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, while data on Wednesday
showed a fall in U.S. retail sales for the first time in seven
months in September. However, investors cheered positive results from Bank of
America BAC.N , which rose 2% after beating analysts' estimates
for third-quarter profit. PNC Financial Services Group Inc PNC.N and Bank of New
York Mellon Corp BK.N also rose after better-than-expected
earnings. The reports followed strong earnings on Tuesday from
JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N and Citigroup Inc C.N , showing
consumer confidence remained strong despite recession fears that
have led businesses to pull back on spending and borrowing.
"Earnings by and large has been pretty good so far but the
China headlines are definitely humming in the background," said
Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners
in Pittsburgh.
"A lot of investor hopes are pinned on some of these
tensions abating, because that is a linchpin on why you should
own stocks," she added.
Analysts have forecast the worst quarterly earnings season
in nearly three years for S&P 500 companies, as domestic
economic growth shows signs of slowing on the fallout from the
tariff war with China.
Of the 43 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so
far, 86% have topped Wall Street expectations, according to IBES
data from Refinitiv.
Analysts expect market action to turn positive through the
session, as optimism from solid earnings reports overshadows
mixed political headlines.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.21-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.11-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
At 12:50 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 7.55 points, or 0.03%, at 27,017.25, the S&P 500 .SPX
was down 5.66 points, or 0.19%, at 2,990.02.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was down 28.26 points, or
0.35%, at 8,120.44, coming under pressure from a 3.61% fall in
shares of Adobe Inc ADBE.O after Citigroup downgraded the
Photoshop software maker. Among other stocks, United Airlines UAL.O was up 2.5%
after the carrier raised its 2019 profit target. Drug distributors McKesson MCK.N , AmerisourceBergen
ABC.N and Cardinal Health CAH.N jumped between 3% and 5%
after a report that they were in talks with state and local
governments to settle thousands of opioid lawsuits for $18
billion. General Motors GM.N rose 1.8% after the U.S. automaker
reached a tentative four-year labor deal with the United Auto
Workers union, moving the sides closer to ending the month-long
strike. Investors now await quarterly results from Netflix Inc
NFLX.O and International Business Machines IBM.N , due to
report after markets close on Wednesday.
The S&P index recorded 12 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 30 new highs and 53 new lows.