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

FMC plunges 33% on lower quarterly profits forecast

Uber declines after guiding Q1 bookings below estimates

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

(Updates with afternoon costs)

By Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta

Feb 5 (Reuters) -

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq slipped on Wednesday, with Alphabet the greatest drag after the tech giant's dour cloud earnings and hefty investments into expert system disappointed financiers, while a multitude of earnings included to the volatility.

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

"The market has some evidence to recommend that there are other companies that possibly doing it cheaper, better, quicker, quicker," said Dave Grecsek, managing director in preparation strategy and research at Aspiriant.

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

AI-related stocks were rocked recently following the soaring popularity of a low-cost Chinese expert system model established by startup

DeepSeek

. Nvidia, among the business that was the worst hit, was up 3.8% on the day.

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

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

Private payrolls increased by 183,000 jobs last month, compared with an estimated 150,000 increase, per economic experts polled by Reuters. The critical January nonfarm payrolls report is expected to be released on Friday.

Shares of Apple eased 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%, setiathome.berkeley.edu 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 greater, though interaction services' over 3% fall obscured gains.

Uber Technologies dropped 7.2% after the ride-hailing business anticipated current-quarter bookings listed below estimates.

Fiserv advanced 7.1% as the payments company beat estimates for fourth-quarter profit, helped by strong demand in its banking and payments processing system.

Markets also 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 try to pacify a new trade war between the nations.

Richmond Fed president Thomas Barkin said the Fed was still leaning towards more rate cuts this year, however flagged uncertainty around the effect of new tariffs, immigration, policies and other Trump administration initiatives.

Among top movers, FMC Corp plunged 33.6% after the agrichemicals manufacturer projection first-quarter profits below quotes.

Johnson Controls leapt 11.1% as the building services company called Joakim Weidemanis as president and raised its 2025 revenue forecast.

Advancing concerns outnumbered decliners by a 2.03-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and 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 taped 81 new highs and 69 new lows.

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