* QXO falls after $17 bln TopBuild ( BLD ) acquisition deal

* Meta drops more than 2% after nine straight sessions of

gains

* Earnings to pick up pace this week

(Updates to market close)

By Chuck Mikolajczak and Purvi Agarwal

NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed

slightly lower on Monday, with each of the three major indexes

coming off a third straight week of gains, as renewed U.S.-Iran

tensions put the durability of a two-week ceasefire in doubt.

Iran is considering attending peace talks with the U.S. in

Pakistan, a senior Iranian official told Reuters, following

moves by Islamabad to end a U.S. blockade of Iran's ports.

However, a separate source said Vice President JD Vance was

still in the U.S., denying reports he was on his way to Pakistan

for talks.

Iran opened the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, fueling a broad

market surge, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq posting record

highs for a third straight session for their biggest weekly

gains in 11 months. However, Tehran closed the crucial shipping

waterway again over the weekend.

U.S. crude jumped 6.87% to settle at $89.61 a barrel

and Brent rose to settle at $95.48 per barrel, up 5.64%

on the day, lifting the S&P 500 energy index as one of

the better-performing of the 11 S&P 500 sectors on the session.

"The news over the weekend with the re-closure of the strait

or the boarding of the Iran vessel, that gets us a little away

from it's fully reopened, but the timing doesn't look like it's

still that far off as it was with at least talks over the week,"

said Tom Hainlin, national investment strategist at U.S. Bank

Wealth Management in Minneapolis.

"But you're in the middle of first-quarter earnings season

too, so then the question is, has there been any bleed over into

the real economy, and so far you've heard from the banks that

consumer credit looks okay and their spending looks okay."

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 15.84

points, or 0.22%, to end at 7,110.22 points, while the Nasdaq

Composite lost 60.48 points, or 0.25%, to 24,408.00. The

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.19 points, or 0.01%,

to 49,445.24.

Communication services was the worst-performing

sector, as Meta was down more than 2% to snap a

nine-session winning streak, its longest since October.

Netflix ( NFLX ) also fell to weigh on the sector, and has

fallen about 12% since announcing its quarterly results and the

departure of co-founder Reed Hastings last week.

The CBOE Volatility Index, known as Wall Street's

"fear gauge", gained after falling for the past eight sessions

and was last up 1.57 points at 19.08, after reaching a one-week

high of 19.99.

Investors will look to assess the impact of the Iran war on

corporate results and on the broader economy, with companies

including Lockheed Martin ( LMT ) and IBM ( IBM ) scheduled to

report later this week.

Tesla will kick off results from the so-called

"Magnificent Seven" group of megacap stocks on Wednesday.

Of the 48 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings

through Friday morning, 87.5% have topped analyst expectations,

according to LSEG data. The current first-quarter earnings

growth rate stands at 14.4%.

Among other movers, QXO shares slumped after the

construction supplies distributor struck a $17 billion deal to

acquire building products distributor and installer TopBuild ( BLD )

, whose shares surged.