US STOCKS-S&P 500 slides from five-week high on fears over rising COVID-19 cases

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* Twitter falls as accounts of top voices hacked on its
platform
* Bank of America slips as profit halves in Q2
* American Airlines says air travel demand slowing again
* Indexes down: Dow 0.55%, S&P 0.59%, Nasdaq 1.12%

(Updates to early afternoon)
By Medha Singh and Devik Jain
July 16 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 slipped from a five-week
high on Thursday as concerns about the economic toll from rising
coronavirus cases nationwide were heightened by data showing
elevated levels of unemployment claims.
U.S. retail sales increased more than expected in June, but
a resurgence in new COVID-19 cases is chipping at the budding
recovery, keeping 32 million Americans on unemployment benefits.
The jump in domestic case loads has forced states such as
California to shut down again, sparking fears of more business
damage and slowing the pace of a Wall Street rally. The S&P 500
is about 5.8% away from its record high hit in February.
"The spike in COVID-19 cases across the country is raising a
concern that if they continue to rise, what would it mean for
the economy and potential shutdowns," said Stan Gregor, chief
executive officer of Summit Financial LLC in Parsippany, New
Jersey.
The S&P 500 has exceeded the Nasdaq by about 3 percentage
points over the past week, its greatest five-day outperformance
over the Nasdaq since late March, reflecting a shift away from
Amazon.com AMZN.O , Microsoft Inc MSFT.O and other major
technology companies that have led Wall Street's gains in recent
months.
Utilities .SPLRCU , industrials .SPLRCI and materials
.SPLRCM were in favor among the major S&P sectors on Thursday.
"This is an early indication of good signs that money is now
flowing away from completely overbought Nasdaq into those names
that will bode well when the economy starts finding more of a
solid footing," said Andrew Smith, chief investment strategist
at Dallas, Texas-based Delos Capital Advisors.
Twitter Inc TWTR.N fell 1.1% as hackers accessed its
internal systems to hijack some of the platform's top voices
including U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden, reality TV star
Kim Kardashian West, former U.S. President Barack Obama and
billionaire Elon Musk and used them to solicit digital currency.
At 12:47 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 147.48 points, or 0.55%, at 26,722.62, the S&P 500
.SPX was down 18.90 points, or 0.59%, at 3,207.66. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 117.90 points, or 1.12%, at
10,432.59.
Rounding up earnings reports of big banks, Bank of America
Corp BAC.N fell 2.4% after its second-quarter profit more than
halved, while Morgan Stanley MS.N rose 2.2% after posting a
record quarterly profit. American Airlines AAL.O dropped 6.7% as it sent 25,000
notices of potential furloughs to frontline workers and warned
that demand for air travel is slowing again.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O slipped 2.4% as its vehicle registrations
nearly halved in the U.S. state of California during the second
quarter, according to data from a marketing research firm.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.31-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and for a 1.82-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 29 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 68 new highs and 10 new lows.