Dow, S&P 500 slip as JPMorgan falls; Nasdaq up

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow and S&P 500 slipped on Thursday as JPMorgan's earnings and China's soft economic data increased worries about the impact of slower growth on third-quarter profits.

The declines followed three straight days of gains, while the Nasdaq stayed in positive territory, helped by semiconductor shares.

The S&P 500 rose six out of the last seven sessions, and has run up 11.4 percent from an intraday low hit last Tuesday.

The benchmark S&P index has had its largest seven-day gain since March 2009 on growing optimism that European leaders were making progress in tackling the region's debt problems.

JPMorgan Chase & Co , the second-largest U.S. bank, slid 4.8 percent to $31.62 and was the biggest drag on the Dow after reporting a drop in its third-quarter net profit.

"It's early, but it seems like after having a series of great corporate earnings in the face of not-such-great macro numbers, now maybe we're seeing a little bit less robust corporate earnings," said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer of North Star Investment Management Corp. in Chicago.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 12.45 points, or 0.11 percent, to 11,506.40. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped 0.22 of a point, or 0.02 percent, to 1,207.03. But the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 17.81 points, or 0.68 percent, to 2,622.54.

China's trade surplus narrowed for a second straight month in September as both imports and exports were lower than expected, pointing to cooling domestic and global economic demand.

According to a Reuters poll, analysts have reined in their expectations for U.S. economic growth, though it is still expected to pick up a notch by year-end.

Boosting the Nasdaq, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc climbed 8.6 percent to $43.68 after IMS Health said it was revising estimates of the number of prescriptions written in late September for Vertex's hepatitis C drug.

An index of semiconductors gained 2.2 percent.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Jan Paschal)