(Adds final closing prices, volume data)

* Indexes down: Dow 0.59%, S&P 500 0.19%, Nasdaq 0.05%

* Domino's Pizza gains after Q2 revenue beat

* Chip index pares gains, Alphabet rises after report it is

building new AI chips

* Alphabet, Tesla and Intel ( INTC ) to report earnings later in the

week

By Sinéad Carew and Ragini Mathur

July 20 (Reuters) - Wall Street's three major indexes

finished lower on Monday while investors looked for moves toward

Middle East de-escalation and waited for earnings reports due

from major technology companies later in the week.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq fell less than the S&P 500 and the

Dow as the chip sector recovered some of the prior week's losses

and growth sectors such as communications services and

technology gained some ground along with the energy

stocks.

The second-quarter financial reporting will pick up the pace

this week, with results due from big names like Alphabet

, Tesla and Intel ( INTC ), broadening the

picture the earnings season provides of the health of corporate

America after a week of results mostly from the financial

sector.

"Everybody is waiting for earnings season to really get going,"

said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel, noting

that investors may be "kind of sitting on their hands" ahead of

results from sectors such as technology, energy and

consumer-facing businesses.

Meanwhile, Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday that they

were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, opening a new

front in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and widening the threat to

global energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf. But a senior

Iranian official told Reuters that mediators have passed Iran a

proposal to de-escalate the war with the U.S. that would offer a

10-day ceasefire to find ways to revive an interim deal reached

last month.

After more than a week of bombing in the region, Joe

Quinlan, head of CIO market strategy for Merrill and BofA

Private Bank, said that investors were anxious for any efforts

toward a Middle East resolution that could potentially re-open

the Strait of Hormuz and improve oil supplies and prices.

"The hope is if you get some type of resolution - less bombing,

more talk in the Middle East - that oil prices and gasoline

prices would not go as high as we saw earlier this year and

therefore, alleviate some of that pressure on consumer prices,"

Quinlan said, also suggesting that investors were preparing for

earnings.

Markets are expecting S&P 500 earnings growth of 26% for the

second quarter year on year, up from an earlier estimate of

23.7%, according to data compiled by LSEG.

In particular, investors will anxiously monitor results from

chipmakers such as Intel ( INTC ) and Texas Instruments ( TXN ) for any

encouraging signs after the heavyweight Philadelphia SE

Semiconductor Index ended Friday more than 20% below its

late-June record high, confirming a bear-market decline.

After rising closer to 4% earlier in the session, the chip index

closed Monday with a more modest 0.6% gain.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 307.16 points, or

0.59%, to 51,839.26, the S&P 500 lost 14.41 points, or

0.19%, to 7,443.28 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 12.17

points, or 0.05%, to 25,508.07.

In individual stocks, Apple Inc ( AAPL ) was the biggest drag on

the S&P 500 with a 2% decline while the biggest boost came from

Microsoft ( MSFT ) .

The benchmark index's biggest percentage gainer was Global

Payments Inc ( GPN ), which added 5.8% after Morgan Stanley

upgraded its rating for the stock to overweight and raised its

price target to $100 from $65. Its biggest percentage decliner

was Carvana Co ( CVNA ), which fell 4.8%.

Alphabet rose 1.5%, providing the S&P's third biggest

index-point boost after a report that its Google unit is

developing a Gemini-integrated server chip aimed at improving AI

efficiency and easing computing-capacity constraints.

Elsewhere, Domino's Pizza shares finished up 2.1% after

the pizza chain's quarterly revenue edged past Wall Street

estimates.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.72-to-1 ratio on

the NYSE, where there were 106 new highs and 116 new lows. On

the Nasdaq, 1,684 stocks rose and 3,030 fell as declining issues

outnumbered advancers by a 1.8-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 10 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows while the

Nasdaq Composite recorded 46 new highs and 180 new lows.

Trading volume was light, however, with 15.50 billion shares

changing hands on U.S. exchanges compared with the 19.94 billion

average for the last 20 sessions.