US STOCKS-Banks lead Wall Street lower on hedge fund default concerns

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* Boeing rises on Southwest order for 737 MAX jets
* Archegos-linked stocks extend losses from last week
* Financials weigh on S&P 500, Dow
* Indexes: Dow flat, S&P off 0.42%, Nasdaq down 0.78%

(Updates to market open)
By Devik Jain and Medha Singh
March 29 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes eased on
Monday after a surge in the previous session, as global banks
said they faced potential losses from a hedge fund's default on
margin calls.
Nomura 8604.T and Credit Suisse CSGN.S warned of losses
after the U.S. hedge fund, named by sources as Archegos Capital,
defaulted, hitting shares in some big media and Chinese
technology companies. Shares in Morgan Stanley MS.N fell about 3% after the
Financial Times reported it had also sold billions of shares,
while Bank of America Corp BAC.N , Citigroup Inc C.N ,
JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N , Goldman Sachs GS.N and Wells
Fargo & Co WFC.N dropped between 0.3% and 2.7%.
The news has raised concerns about whether the full extent
of Archegos' apparent wipeout has been realized or whether there
was more selling to come from other lenders.
Nomura still has positions to unwind, Bloomberg reported,
citing a Japan government official. Shares in Discovery Inc DISCA.O , U.S.-listed shares of
Tencent (HK:0700) Music TME.N , ViacomCBS VIAC.O , Baidu BIDU.O and
VIPShop VIPS.N , all linked to Archegos, gave up early gains.
Theses stocks lost between 30% and 50% of their value last week.
"It's a black eye for the financial industry because it
suggests that there still may not be a full handle on risk
control when it comes to leveraged trading," said Rick Meckler,
a partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey.
"This seems like a pretty specific case. It could lead to
increased regulation...but the impact on broader markets is
going to be small."
The Dow and the S&P 500 hit record closing highs on Friday
on optimism about speedy vaccinations and record stimulus, while
the tech-heavy Nasdaq is still about 7.1% from its February
all-time closing high.
"We've come far really fast and I wouldn't be surprised to
see a pause ... especially after the rally that we've had and
because we don't have earnings season yet," said Stephanie Link,
chief investment strategist at Hightower Advisors.
At 10:04 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 16.14 points, or 0.05%, at 33,089.02, the S&P 500 .SPX
was down 16.75 points, or 0.42%, at 3,957.79, and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 102.09 points, or 0.78%, at
13,036.64.
Planemaker Boeing Co BA.N rose 2.6% after reaching a deal
with U.S. budget carrier Southwest Airlines Co LUV.N for a
variant of the 737 MAX aircraft. Southwest's shares gained about
0.5%. Bitcoin prices BTS=BTSP gained about 4% after Visa Inc
V.N said it would allow the use of the cryptocurrency USD Coin
to settle transactions on its payment network. Declining issues outnumbered advancers 1.17-to-1 on the NYSE
and 1.65-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 60 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 67 new highs and 17 new lows.