* SanDisk, Baidu shares jump a day after earnings
* American Express, Verizon weigh on Dow
* Dow down 0.3 pct, S&P up 0.1 pct; Nasdaq up 0.7 pct
* For up-to-the-minute market news see [STXNEWS/US] (Updates to late afternoon)
By Edward Krudy
NEW YORK, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Technology shares advanced on Friday after positive earnings from Baidu Inc (BIDU.O) and SanDisk (SNDK.O) helped push the S&P 500 and Nasdaq toward a third straight week of gains.
Profit at SanDisk, a maker of flash memory, and Baidu, the Chinese Web search engine, beat Wall Street estimates and both companies forecast strong demand ahead. Baidu's shares rose 6.2 percent while SanDisk jumped 1.2 percent.
But American Express (AXP.N) slipped as regulatory issues overshadowed rising profit while Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) fell after it said additions of new wireless customers may lag.
Encouraging earnings over the last three weeks have helped stocks sustain upward momentum, so far defying expectations that investors would take profits after strong results.
"To get decent earnings after a nice little rally in the market and have the market sustain the gains or even achieve a little more is a really good thing and bodes well," said Robert Stimpson, a fund manager at Oak Associates in Akron, Ohio.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI slipped 31.04 points, or 0.28 percent, to 11,115.53. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX rose 0.68 point, or 0.06 percent, to 1,180.94. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC added 16.63 points, or 0.68 percent, to 2,476.30.
Also boosting the Nasdaq were shares of online retailer Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), which gained 2.6 percent to $169.30 after Wall Street analysts raised their price targets on the company, even as Amazon gave a disappointing forecast on Thursday. For details, see [ID:nSGE69L0GN]
"You have a lot of companies that I would consider attractive in terms of strong balance sheets and growth prospects," said Subodh Kumar, chief investment strategist for Subodh Kumar & Associates in Toronto.
Shares of American Express declined 2.7 percent to $39.18 while Verizon lost 1.6 percent to $31.99.
Technology led gains in the recent rally. The Nasdaq is up 17 percent since the end of August compared with the S&P 500, which is up 12.6 percent.
Early reports from technology companies have given a mostly rosy picture of the sector's future, including Google's (GOOG.O) much stronger-than-expected earnings a week ago. Baidu late Thursday gave a robust outlook for its business. [ID:nN21118741].
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