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CVS gains after report Glenview to meet with executives

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Investors digest Powell comments at conference

(Updates to 4 p.m. ET, 2000 GMT)

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, Sept 30 (Reuters) -

The S&P 500 ended with slight gains on Monday after briefly

falling as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S.

central bank is not in a hurry to lower interest rates and he

sees two more cuts, totaling 50 basis points, this year as a

baseline if the economy evolves as expected.

Powell, at a National Association for Business Economics

conference in Nashville, Tennessee, also said recent revisions

to data on economic growth, savings rates and personal income

had removed some "downside risks" the Fed had been focused on.

The Fed earlier this month began a new easing cycle with a

large 50 basis point rate cut.

"He kept alluding to the strength of the economy... but he

did allow for the possibility there could be a further cooling,"

said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial in

Charlotte, North Carolina.

"There are more data releases coming before the November

meeting, and the Fed is going to take those data releases under

careful consideration."

Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones

Industrial Average rose 16.95 points, or 0.04%, to

42,329.95, the S&P 500 gained 24.22 points, or 0.42%, to

5,762.39 and the Nasdaq Composite added 69.58 points, or

0.38%, to 18,189.17.

The S&P 500 fell following Powell's remarks. Krosby said

the market was overbought heading into the day's session after

recent strong gains.

Key economic reports due this week include jobless claims

and monthly payrolls.

CVS Health ( CVS ) rose after a report showed hedge fund

Glenview Capital Management will meet top executives at the

healthcare company to propose ways to improve operations.

(Additional reporting by Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal in

Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel, Richard Chang and Andrea

Ricci)