Wednesday's early afternoon trade: Apple, Boeing keep Wall Street afloat

Wall Street was supported by gains in Apple and Boeing shares on Wednesday, though weak earnings from Caterpillar and Texas Instruments raised concerns of an impact from the US-China trade war on global growth.

Apple Inc shares rose 1.1% after Morgan Stanley said the iPhone maker's soon-to-be-launched video streaming service, Apple TV+, could boost its services revenue.

But tit-for-tat tariffs by Washington and Beijing prompted profit and revenue warnings from Texas Instruments and Caterpillar Inc.

Texas Instruments, seen as a proxy for the microchip sector, dropped 6%, weighing on the Philadelphia Semiconductor index, while Caterpillar shares were flat.

"It's pretty clear there were some tough numbers coming out from bellwether type names like Caterpillar and Boeing, and certainly in the case of Boeing, people are shrugging it off," said Josh Wein, portfolio manager at Hennessy Funds in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Boeing's shares rose 0.7%, lifting the blue-chip Dow Jones index, after the world's largest planemaker reaffirmed the timeline for its grounded 737 MAX's return to service, as investors looked past quarterly profit that more than halved.

The S&P 500 has hovered near its record high this week after signs of progress in trade talks between the world's top two economies.

Investors are now waiting for results from big tech firms, with Microsoft Corp scheduled to report after markets close.

The earnings season has largely been upbeat, with more than 82% of the 124 S&P 500 companies that have reported so far surpassing earnings expectations, according to Refinitiv data. But analysts still project the first earnings contraction since 2016.

At 12:47 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 14.19 points, or 0.05%, at 26,802.29 and the S&P 500 was up 3.96 points, or 0.13%, at 2,999.95. The Nasdaq Composite was up 7.93 points, or 0.10%, at 8,112.23. A 1.4% gain in Facebook boosted the tech heavy index after CEO Mark Zuckerberg sought to reassure US lawmakers about the company's planned digital currency, Libra.