By Noel Randewich and Tharuniyaa Lakshmi
Oct 13 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 was near flat on Tuesday, as chip stocks added to recent losses and investors parsed mixed quarterly results from Citigroup and other big US banks.
The PHLX chip index fell 1.2%, down for a fifth straight session, after Broadcom CEO Hock Tan on Monday likened some of the investment flow into the sector to "casino gambling." Additionally, reports of technological advances by Chinese memory chip company CXMT underscored concerns
about rising competition.
Micron Technology dipped 5.4% and Applied Materials lost 8%. Broadcom was near flat.
Citigroup dipped 4.1% and Goldman Sachs rose 0.2% after both banks topped profit estimates.
Wells Fargo fell 2.2% after its net interest income missed estimates, while JPMorgan Chase swung between gains and losses following a rare profit miss.
Apple hit an intraday record high of $348.15. The iPhone maker was last up 0.6% at $343.05, putting its stock market value at $5 trillion.
Analysts on average see S&P 500 third-quarter earnings surging over 30%, fueled largely by AI-related technology companies, according to LSEG data.
Expectations of a strong earnings season have offset worries about the US war with Iran, surging bond yields and inflation related to high oil prices.
"Until we get into the full swing of earnings, we'll still be subject to uneven market performance," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities.
The S&P 500 was last down 0.02% at 7,805.51 points.
The Nasdaq declined 0.13% to 27,210.72 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.33% at 51,677.05 points.
The S&P 500 has rallied 14% in 2026, lifted by AI-related technology stocks. However, the median stock in the index is up less than 5% and over 200 S&P 500 components are down for the year.
Reflecting expectations of strong corporate earnings from AI heavyweights, the S&P 500 is trading at under 19 times expected earnings, its lowest since 2023.
The PHLX chip index has lost more than 8% in the past five sessions, and it remains up over 70% year-to-date.
The S&P 500 healthcare index fell 1.3% on Tuesday, with Johnson & Johnson down 6% despite topping profit estimates.
Bumble jumped 56% after the dating-app operator agreed to go private in a $1.3 billion deal.
Domino's Pizza lost 3.2% after scaling back its full-year sales outlook.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones within the S&P 500 by a 1.1-to-one ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 16 new highs and five new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 36 new highs and 370 new lows.
(Reporting by Noel Randewich in San Francisco and Tharuniyaa Lakshmi and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das and Matthew Lewis)
