US STOCKS-S&P 500, Dow slip on grim earnings, coronavirus worries

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* U.S. weekly jobless claims fall slightly
* Morgan Stanley drops after profit falls
* United Airlines cuts May flights by 90%, warns of job cuts
* Indexes mixed: Dow off 1.05%, S&P down 0.44%, Nasdaq up
0.35%

By Medha Singh and Akanksha Rana
April 16 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Dow Jones slipped on
Thursday, giving up early gains as concerns about dismal
first-quarter earnings and lasting economic damage from the
coronavirus pandemic offset better-than-expected weekly jobless
claims numbers.
A 4.7% fall for Boeing Co BA.N drove the blue-chip Dow
Jones Industrials .DJI down more than 1%, as European rival
Airbus AIR.PA said it was examining requests to defer
deliveries after a collapse in travel demand. The Nasdaq .IXIC outperformed the broader market with
Amazon.com AMZN.O and Microsoft Corp MSFT.O boosting the
tech-heavy index for the fifth session in six.
Wall Street has swung this week between hopes of a peaking
in coronavirus cases and fears of the biggest economic slump
since the Great Depression, as lockdown measures crushed
consumer spending and business activity.
Latest data showed jobless claims fell slightly to 5.2
million last week from an upwardly revised 6.62 million the week
before, but the total figure for the past month still topped a
stunning 20 million. "We are still struggling to grab a foothold on the
deterioration of what's going on," said Andrew Smith, chief
investment officer of Delos Capital Advisors in Dallas.
"The jobless claims number is better than what economists
expected, but it's still a little too soon to be extrapolating
to the 'all clear ahead' road."
After a 27% rally from its March lows, the S&P 500 index
still stands 18% below its record high as first-quarter earnings
kicked off with U.S. banks preparing for a wave of future loan
defaults following a halt in business activity.
Analysts estimate earnings for S&P 500 companies slumped
12.8% in the first quarter, with U.S. economic growth expected
to have contracted at its fastest pace since World War Two.
Trump is now expected to announce "new guidelines" for
re-opening the economy at a news conference on Thursday, as he
said data suggested the United States had passed the peak on new
infections. "What the market cannot price in perfectly is when the
economy re-opens, what its nuances will look like and what its
impact will be on corporate profits one quarter, two quarters
and a year away," said David Bahnsen, chief investment officer
at Bahnsen Group in Newport Beach, California.
Morgan Stanley MS.N wrapped up earnings for the big U.S.
lenders, reporting a plunge in quarterly profit as its advisory
and wealth management businesses took a hit from the economic
fallout of the pandemic. The bank subsector .SPXBK dropped
3.9%. At 10:19 a.m. ET, the S&P 500 .SPX was down 12.13 points,
or 0.44%, at 2,771.23 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
.DJI was down 245.72 points, or 1.05%, at 23,258.63. The
Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 28.97 points, or 0.35%, at
8,422.15.
The Philadelphia chip index .SOX rose 1% after the world's
largest contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co
Ltd (TSMC) 2330.TW reported a near doubling in first-quarter
net profit.
However, United Airlines Holdings Inc UAL.O slipped 10.5%
as the carrier said it cut its flight schedule by 90% for May
and warned travel demand now "essentially at zero shows no sign
of improving in the near term". Declining issues outnumbered advancers more than 3-to-1 on
the NYSE and 1.6-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 11 new 52-week highs and one new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 33 new highs and 21 new lows.