US STOCKS-Wall Street moves lower as quarterly earnings loom

* S&P 500 Q3 profit growth slower than Q2, Q1 - Reuters data

* GE down more than 4 pct after replacing CFO

* Cinema stocks drop after “Blade Runner 2049” opening weekend

* Dow -0.08 pct, S&P -0.18 pct, Nasdaq -0.13 pct (Updates to afternoon)

By Noel Randewich

Oct 9 (Reuters) - Wall Street declined on Monday as gains in Microsoft and other technology stocks failed to offset a dip in Medtronic and other healthcare stocks.

The S&P healthcare index moved down 0.76 percent, weighed by a 3.6-percent slide in Medtronic after the medical device maker warned that its quarterly profit would be impacted after Hurricane Maria hit its operations in Puerto Rico.

The S&P 500 has rallied 14 percent in 2017, buoyed by strong company earnings and enthusiasm that President Donald Trump will cut corporate taxes.

JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup will report their profits on Thursday, kicking third-quarter reporting season into high gear as investors look for strong growth to justify pricey valuations.

"This is a nervous, unpopular bull market. If a company just meets earnings or - God forbid - misses earnings, the market is going to crush that particular stock," said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Overall, earnings at S&P 500 companies are expected to have increased 4.8 percent last quarter, according to Thomson Reuters data, down from the double-digit growth recorded in the first two quarters of this year.

Nvidia rose 1.6 percent and the S&P 500 information technology index added 0.3 percent, bringing its gain in 2017 to 28 percent.

At 3:01 pm ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.08 percent at 22,755.17 points, while the S&P 500 had lost 0.18 percent to 2,544.83.

The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.13 percent to 6,581.67.

Shares of cinema stocks AMC Entertainment Holdings and Regal Entertainment fell more than 4 percent after domestic opening weekend ticket sales for science fiction sequel “Blade Runner 2049” fell short of expectations.

GE shares sank 4 percent after the conglomerate named a new CFO and said it gave activist investment firm Trian Fund Management a board seat.

Tesla fell 3.3 percent after pushing back the unveiling of its big rig truck to mid-November.

Viacom slipped 6.2 percent after Citigroup downgraded the stock to "sell", citing risks that pay-TV firms would stop carrying its channels.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.24-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.46-to-1 ratio favored decliners. (Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by James Dalgleish)