US STOCKS-Boeing, travel stocks pull Wall Street lower as virus cases rise

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* Kansas City Southern surges on bid from Canadian National
* Nike falls as Citi downgrades stock
* CBOE volatility index hits three-week high
* Indexes down: Dow 0.64%, S&P 0.66%, Nasdaq 0.91%

(Adds comment, details; updates prices)
By Shivani Kumaresan and Medha Singh
April 20 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes fell for a
second straight day on Tuesday as a spike in coronavirus cases
globally hit travel stocks, while Boeing slid on the unexpected
departure of its finance chief.
Seven of the 11 S&P indexes were down, with investors piling
into defensive stocks that are considered relatively safe during
times of economic uncertainty: real estate .SPLRCR , utilities
.SPLRCU , consumer staples .SPLRCS and healthcare .SPXHC .
Shares of airline operators and cruiseliners including
JetBlue Airways JBLU.O , American Airlines AAL.O , Norwegian
Cruise Line NCLH.N and Carnival Corp CCL.N , which were
hammered last year as widespread lockdowns led to a halt in
global travel, fell between 5% and 9%.
"Rising COVID-19 cases around the world is a risk," said
Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in
Chicago.
"Investors may be taking a little bit of profit as they
recognize that a lot the 'reopening trade' may already be priced
in to the markets at this point."
Wall Street's main indexes scaled record highs last week as
investors bet on stocks such as industrials and miners that are
deemed to benefit from a faster-than-expected economic rebound,
while richly valued technology stocks found favor after a
retreat in bond yields.
On Tuesday, the technology-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC , which
comprises some of the best performing stocks from last year
including Apple Inc AAPL.O and Tesla Inc TSLA.O , was down
0.9% even as Treasury yields ticked lower. US/
The CBOE volatility index .VIX , known as Wall Street's
fear gauge, rose above 19 points for the first time since March
31.
At 12:25 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 0.64%, the S&P 500 .SPX was down 0.66% and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 0.91%.
Boeing Co BA.N fell 4% after it announced the unexpected
retirement of its chief financial officer for the past decade,
Greg Smith. Nike Inc NKE.N dropped 4.2% and was among the top drags on
the blue-chip Dow after Citigroup lowered its rating on the
company's shares to "neutral" from "buy".
Focus turns to quarterly earnings reports from technology
heavyweights after a blockbuster set of results last week from
big banks.
Shares of video-streaming service provider Netflix NFLX.O ,
which thrived during last year's lockdowns, fell about 1.1%
ahead of its results after the closing bell.
International Business Machines Corp IBM.N rose 4.2% after
recording the biggest rise in quarterly sales in more than two
years. Overall, analysts expect first-quarter earnings S&P 500
firms to have jumped 31.5% from a year earlier, according to
Refinitiv IBES data.
United Airlines UAL.O slumped about 9% after reporting a
bigger-than-expected adjusted net loss. Its shares dragged the
S&P 1500 airline index .SPCOMAIR down 5.5%. Kansas City Southern KSU.N jumped 16% to a record high
after Canadian National CNR.TO offered to buy the U.S.
railroad operator for about $30 billion, trumping a rival bid by
Canadian Pacific CP.TO . Declining issues outnumbered advancers 3.09-to-1 on the NYSE
and 3.42-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 56 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 40 new highs and 93 new lows.