US STOCKS-Wall St falls after historic GDP slump, Trump suggests election delay

(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window)
* Q2 GDP numbers show record 33% contraction
* Jobless claims also up, though lower than forecast
* Qualcomm, UPS, P&G up after results
* Indexes down: Dow 1.99%, S&P 1.58%, Nasdaq 1.10%

(Updates to open)
By Medha Singh and Devik Jain
July 30 (Reuters) - Wall Street fell on Thursday following a
historic contraction in second-quarter GDP and a tweet by
President Donald Trump floating the possibility of delaying the
U.S. November presidential elections.
Trump, without evidence, repeated his claims of mail-in
voter fraud and raised the question of a delay, despite the
election date being enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
Earlier in the day, official data showed the U.S. economy
suffered its steepest contraction since the Great Depression in
the second quarter, as business activity came to an abrupt halt
on efforts to slow the virus outbreak. Jobless claims numbers also showed another rise in the
latest week, adding to signs the momentum of economic recovery
has slowed, especially in southern and western U.S. states.
"The short-term data indicates we're kind of flattening out
a little bit, which indicates the recovery is much less a 'V'
and a little bit more a 'square root sign' at this point," said
Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in
Chicago.
"The markets are taking a breather here and assessing what
the next six months look like. We've got plenty of stuff on our
plate from China to the elections, the virus to reopening
schools."
The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday acknowledged the surge
in cases was likely stalling recovery, while pledging to support
the economy as long as necessary, giving a boost to Wall
Street's three main indexes late in the session. All S&P sectors were in the red on Thursday, led by declines
in economically sensitive sectors — financials .SPSY , energy
.SPNY and materials .SPLRCM .
At 10:00 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 527.37 points, or 1.99%, at 26,012.20, the S&P 500
.SPX was down 51.63 points, or 1.58%, at 3,206.81. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 115.47 points, or 1.10%, at
10,427.48.
Qualcomm Inc QCOM.O , United Parcel Service Inc UPS.N ,
and Procter & Gamble Co PG.N rose following quarterly results,
with Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N up slightly as it started human
safety trials for its COVID-19 vaccine. Corporate earnings have tended to be better than
expectations so far, but the scale of the economic damage from
the pandemic, and the likelihood it will drag on are weighing on
investors' minds.
The White House and Congress are still at loggerheads over a
coronavirus relief plan, ahead of the lapse of the enhanced
$600-per-week unemployment benefits on Friday. Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Alphabet Inc
GOOGL.O and Facebook Inc FB.O will report earnings later on
Thursday, with some on Wall Street questioning their valuations
after this year's gains.
Shares of the companies, which have a combined market value
of about $5 trillion, fell between 0.5% and 1.2%. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 5.99-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 3.56-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 15 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 35 new highs and 18 new lows.