US STOCKS-Wall Street mixed as chip rally counters dismal Caterpillar, Boeing earnings

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* Boeing falls after reporting $3 bln Q2 loss
* Caterpillar slips on lower quarterly earnings
* Texas Instruments hits record on upbeat results
* Big Tech faces broad Justice Dept antitrust probe
* Dow down 0.44%, S&P flat, Nasdaq up 0.13%

(Changes comment, updates prices)
By Amy Caren Daniel
July 24 (Reuters) - U.S. indexes were off their session lows
on Wednesday as a rally in semiconductor stocks on reassuring
comments from Texas Instruments on global chip demand blunted
the impact of weak earnings from bellwethers Boeing and
Caterpillar.
Trade-sensitive Caterpillar Inc CAT.N dropped 4.1%
following disappointing earnings on weak sales in China, and
higher production and restructuring costs. Boeing Co BA.N slipped 2% after the world's largest
planemaker posted its biggest loss in decades on the back of
this year's grounding of its best-selling 737 MAX planes after
two deadly crashes. The bleak earnings dragged the blue-chip Dow index .DJI
down more than 100 points, but the rise in chipmakers helped the
S&P 500 .SPX and Nasdaq .IXIC indexes to trade flat to
slightly higher.
"Caterpillar's results are a reflection of the struggling
manufacturing side and weak business spending," said Steve
Chiavarone, a portfolio manager at Federated Investors in New
York.
Texas Instruments Inc TXN.O jumped 8.1% after the company
hinted that a global slowdown in microchip demand would not be
as long as feared, powering a 2.1% rise in the Philadelphia chip
index .SOX to a record high. "Texas Instruments greatly reflects the growing prospects of
the industry at large," Chiavarone said.
The broader technology sector .SPLRCT rose 0.16%, and
provided the biggest support to markets.
Two weeks into the earnings season for which investors have
dialed down expectations, about 77% of the 138 S&P 500 companies
that have reported so far have topped earnings estimates,
according to Refinitiv data.
Overall profits, however, are now expected to fall 0.1%,
compared with prior estimate of a rise of about 1%.
At 10:58 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down
120.83 points, or 0.44%, at 27,228.36, the S&P 500 was up 1.08
points, or 0.04%, at 3,006.55. The Nasdaq Composite was up 10.49
points, or 0.13%, at 8,261.90.
United Parcel Service Inc UPS.N climbed 8.8%, the biggest
percentage gainer on the S&P 500 index, after the world's
biggest package delivery company reported a better-than-expected
quarterly profit. Also weighing on sentiment was the U.S. Justice Department's
announcement of a broad antitrust investigation into big tech
companies.
The DoJ did not identify specific companies, but the terms
of the review pointed to Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O , Amazon.com Inc
AMZN.O and Facebook Inc FB.O . Their shares fell between 0.3%
and 0.6%.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.83-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.39-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 28 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 51 new highs and 70 new lows.