US STOCKS-S & P 500, Nasdaq Fall As Earnings Season Gathers Speed;

FMC plunges 33% on lower quarterly profits projection

Uber decreases after directing Q1 reservations listed below price quotes

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Indexes: Dow up 0.15%, S&P 500 down 0.08%, Nasdaq down 0.34%

(Updates with afternoon rates)

By Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta

Feb 5 (Reuters) -

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq slipped on Wednesday, with Alphabet the most significant drag after the tech giant's dour cloud revenue and large investments into expert system disappointed financiers, while a multitude of profits contributed to the volatility.

Google-parent Alphabet dropped 8.2% after publishing downbeat cloud earnings development and earmarking a higher-than-expected $75 billion for its AI buildout this year.

"The marketplace has some proof to suggest that there are other companies that perhaps doing it less expensive, better, much faster, quicker," said Dave Grecsek, managing director in planning method and research at Aspiriant.

"So what is the wisdom of continuing to maintain high capex?"

AI-related stocks were rocked last week following the skyrocketing popularity of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence design established by startup

DeepSeek

. Nvidia, one of the companies that was the worst hit, was up 3.8% on the day.

Advanced Micro Devices, on the other hand, lost 8.9% after CEO Lisa Su said the company's current-quarter data center sales - a proxy for its AI income - would fall about 7% from the previous quarter.

On the data front, U.S. services sector activity all of a sudden slowed in January amidst cooling need, helping curb price growth, a reading from the Institute for Supply Management revealed.

Private payrolls rose by 183,000 tasks last month, compared with an estimated 150,000 boost, per economists surveyed by Reuters. The all-important January nonfarm payrolls report is anticipated to be released on Friday.

Shares of Apple alleviated 1.2% as Bloomberg News reported that China's antitrust regulator was preparing for a possible investigation of the iPhone maker.

At 11:33 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 65.83 points, or 0.15%, to 44,621.87, the S&P 500 lost 4.37 points, or 0.08%, to 6,033.51 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 70.17 points, or 0.34%, to 19,586.61.

Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors traded higher, though communication services' over 3% fall obscured gains.

Uber Technologies dropped 7.2% after the ride-hailing business anticipated current-quarter reservations listed below price quotes.

Fiserv advanced 7.1% as the payments firm beat estimates for fourth-quarter revenue, assisted by strong need in its banking and payments processing unit.

Markets likewise tried to find developments on the tariffs front after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he remained in no hurry to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping to attempt to pacify a new trade war in between the countries.

Richmond Fed president Thomas Barkin said the Fed was still leaning towards more rate cuts this year, but flagged uncertainty around the impact of brand-new tariffs, migration, regulations and other Trump administration initiatives.

Among top movers, FMC Corp plunged 33.6% after the agrichemicals manufacturer forecast first-quarter income listed below quotes.

Johnson Controls jumped 11.1% as the structure services company called Joakim Weidemanis as president and raised its 2025 revenue projection.

Advancing issues surpassed decliners by a 2.03-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and users.atw.hu by a 1.6-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 published 27 new 52-week highs and 12 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 81 brand-new highs and 69 new lows.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai, Devika Syamnath and Maju Samuel)