(Reuters) – U.S. indexes were off their session lows on Wednesday as a rally in semiconductor stocks on reassuring comments from Texas Instruments on global chip demand blunted the impact of weak earnings from bellwethers Boeing and Caterpillar.

Trade-sensitive Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) dropped 4.1% following disappointing earnings on weak sales in China, and higher production and restructuring costs.

Boeing Co (BA.N) slipped 2% after the world’s largest planemaker posted its biggest loss in decades on the back of this year’s grounding of its best-selling 737 MAX planes after two deadly crashes.

The bleak earnings dragged the blue-chip Dow index .DJI down more than 100 points, but the rise in chipmakers helped the S&P 500 .SPX and Nasdaq .IXIC indexes to trade flat to slightly higher.

“Caterpillar’s results are a reflection of the struggling manufacturing side and weak business spending,” said Steve Chiavarone, a portfolio manager at Federated Investors in New York.

Texas Instruments Inc (TXN.O) jumped 8.1% after the company hinted that a global slowdown in microchip demand would not be as long as feared, powering a 2.1% rise in the Philadelphia chip index .SOX to a record high.

“Texas Instruments greatly reflects the growing prospects of the industry at large,” Chiavarone said.

The broader technology sector .SPLRCT rose 0.16%, and provided the biggest support to markets.

Two weeks into the earnings season for which investors have dialed down expectations, about 77% of the 138 S&P 500 companies that have reported so far have topped earnings estimates, according to Refinitiv data.

Overall profits, however, are now expected to fall 0.1%, compared with prior estimate of a rise of about 1%.

At 10:58 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 120.83 points, or 0.44%, at 27,228.36, the S&P 500 was up 1.08 points, or 0.04%, at 3,006.55. The Nasdaq Composite was up 10.49 points, or 0.13%, at 8,261.90.

United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N) climbed 8.8%, the biggest percentage gainer on the S&P 500 index, after the world’s biggest package delivery company reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit.

Also weighing on sentiment was the U.S. Justice Department’s announcement of a broad antitrust investigation into big tech companies.

The DoJ did not identify specific companies, but the terms of the review pointed to Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and Facebook Inc (FB.O). Their shares fell between 0.3% and 0.6%.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.83-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.39-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 28 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 51 new highs and 70 new lows.

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