US STOCKS-Wall Street set to slide as coronavirus crisis intensifies

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* S&P 500, Dow coming off worst first quarter ever
* Officials project jump in U.S. coronavirus deaths
* Bank stocks track Treasury yields lower
* Futures slide: Dow 3.50% , S&P 3.41%, Nasdaq 2.76%

(Adds details, comment; updates prices)
By Uday Sampath Kumar and Medha Singh
April 1 (Reuters) - Wall Street was set to open sharply
lower on Wednesday, as dire predictions on the U.S. death toll
and worsening economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic led
investors to ditch equities for safe-haven assets.
The S&P 500 .SPX and Dow Jones .DJI indexes ended
Tuesday with their worst opening quarters in history as efforts
to contain the virus resulted in store closures, massive staff
furloughs and a virtual halt in business activity.
The benchmark index has lost about $5.6 trillion in market
value so far this year, despite an unprecedented round of fiscal
and monetary stimulus that helped equity markets claw back some
of the losses last week.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Americans of
a tough two weeks ahead, with White House health officials
modeling an enormous jump in virus-related deaths even with
strict social distancing measures. "There is no easy way to quantify either the economic
shutdown or what the eventual recovery is going to look like as
the monetary and fiscal policy initiatives are as historic as
the economic decline," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist
at National Securities in New York.
With the quarterly earnings season set to begin in two
weeks, investors fear reports of more production cuts as demand
across sectors including airlines, autos, luxury goods and
industrials evaporates, raising the risk of corporate defaults.
S&P 500 companies are expected to enter an earnings
recession in 2020, with declines in profit in the first and
second quarters, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Annual earnings are expected to fall 2%, the first decline
since 2009. In the second quarter alone, profits at S&P 500
firms are projected to slide 9.6%.
In the latest sign of the economic toll of the health
crisis, U.S. private payrolls dropped in March for the first
time since 2017, supporting views that the longest employment
boom in history ended last month. "Talk of a bottom in equity markets still seems remarkably
premature given the continued increase in infection and death
rates across Europe and the United States," said Michael Hewson,
chief market analyst at CMC Markets in London.
At 08:36 a.m. EDT, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 761
points, or 3.50%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 87.5 points,
or 3.41% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 215 points, or
2.76%.
Wall Street's fear gauge, the CBOE volatility index .VIX ,
remains near levels last seen during the 2008 financial crisis,
with investors flocking to the perceived safety of gold XAU=
and U.S. Treasuries. GOL/ US/
Interest-rate sensitive Citigroup Inc C.N , JPMorgan Chase
& Co JPM.N and Goldman Sachs GS.N fell more than 3% in
premarket trading, while airlines, hotels and cruise operators,
shed between 4% and 6%.
Hotel operator Marriott International MAR.O fell 7% after
saying information of about 5.2 million guests was breached.