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Walt Disney ( DIS ) slumps on weaker TV business in Q2

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Tesla falls on China-made EV sales drop in April

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Palantir ( PLTR ) slides on lower-than-expected annual rev.

forecast

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Indexes up: Dow 0.08%, S&P 0.14%, Nasdaq flat

(Updated to 1755 GMT/1355 Eastern time)

By Shristi Achar A and David French

May 7 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes rose on Tuesday, on

track for a fourth straight positive session fueled by renewed

expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates

this year, despite declines in Walt Disney ( DIS ) shares weighing on

overall market gains.

Walt Disney ( DIS ) fell 9.8%, on track for its biggest

percentage fall since November 2022, as a surprise profit in its

streaming entertainment division was eclipsed by a drop in its

traditional TV business and weaker box office.

Despite Disney's ( DIS ) drag, the three main U.S. stock indexes

were trading at a more than three week high after a

weaker-than-expected labor market report last week fueled bets

that the U.S. central bank will cut rates.

Generally, the Fed and policymakers have been consistent in

their message in recent weeks, that rate cuts will come but the

central bank is going to be cautious in implementing them - a

message repeated on Monday by Federal Reserve Bank of New York

President John Williams and Richmond Federal Reserve President

Thomas Barkin.

This meant, on a day lacking major data announcements,

markets shrugged off comments from Minneapolis Federal Reserve

President Neel Kashkari that the Fed may need to hold rates

steady for the remainder of the year due to stalled inflation

and housing market strength.

Overall, Friday's payrolls data and better-than-expected

earnings reports have helped soothe investor jitters around

sticky inflation and a robust economy that have kept the rates

elevated.

"We've just come through an earning season that has improved

people's perception of the earnings outlook, we're in this

period where we don't see a ton of upside but certainly think

that the pro-risk environment we've seen for the past week or so

continues in the coming month," said Greg Boutle, head of US

equity and derivative strategy at BNP Paribas.

He also added that the market "can't go straight from being

worried about the economy being too hot to too cold overnight."

Traders are anticipating rate cuts of 46 basis points (bps)

from the Fed by the end of 2024, according to LSEG's interest

rate probabilities app, with the first pivot to rate cut seen in

September and another in December. They were expecting only one

cut before the labor report last week.

At 01:55 p.m. Eastern ,the S&P 500 gained 7.22

points, or 0.14%, to 5,187.96 points, while the Nasdaq Composite

lost 2.15 points, or 0.01%, to 16,347.09. The Dow Jones

Industrial Average rose 30.42 points, or 0.08%, to

38,882.69.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq looked to extend gains for a

fourth straight session in what would be their longest winning

streak since March. The Dow was set for a fifth consecutive day

of gains, its longest run of gains since December 2023.

Megacap stocks Alphabet and Meta Platforms ( META )

rose 1.6% and 0.4%, respectively, boosting the main

indexes.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) fell 1.1% after the Wall Street Journal

reported that Apple ( AAPL ) was developing its own chip to run

artificial intelligence (AI) software in data centers.

Apple ( AAPL ) gained 0.4% as it introduced a new chip called the M4,

but put the new chip in an iPad Pro model rather than a laptop.

Tesla fell 3% after data showed the U.S. automaker

sold 62,167 China-made electric vehicles in April, down 18% from

a year earlier.

Palantir Technologies ( PLTR ) tumbled 14.7% after the data

analytics firm's annual revenue forecast fell short of analysts'

estimates.

Overall, nine of the 11 S&P sectors were trading higher, led

by real estate and materials.