US STOCKS-Dow starts second quarter with 900-point slide as virus anxiety grows

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* S&P 500, Dow coming off worst first quarter ever
* Officials project jump in U.S. coronavirus deaths
* All 11 major S&P 500 sectors in the red
* Indexes slide: Dow 4.20%, S&P 4.39%, Nasdaq 3.94%

(Updates to early afternoon)
By Uday Sampath Kumar and Medha Singh
April 1 (Reuters) - The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell
more than 900 points on Wednesday as a plunge in new orders for
U.S.-made goods and a dire warning on U.S. death toll from the
coronavirus pushed investors away from stocks to safer assets.
The blue-chip Dow and the S&P 500 were set to extend losses
after suffering their worst first quarter as U.S. President
Donald Trump warned Americans of a "painful" two weeks ahead,
with health officials modeling an enormous jump in virus-related
deaths.
The flight to safety pushed longer-term yields on U.S.
Treasuries lower, putting pressure on interest-sensitive bank
stocks .SPXBK , which fell 7%. The financials sector .SPSY
was among the biggest drags on the S&P 500. US/
"People are concerned with the economic reality of both the
depth as well as the duration of what this episode will be for
the global economy," said Eric Freedman, chief investment
officer at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in North Carolina.
"There is room for further downside and we are still
advocating for caution."
S&P 500 companies have lost about $6.7 trillion in market
value so far this year despite an unprecedented round of fiscal
and monetary stimulus to thwart a recession.
Goldman Sachs now expects sequential real U.S. GDP to
plummet 34% in the second quarter on an annualized basis.
Meanwhile, the collapse in oil prices claimed its first
major casualty, with shale producer Whiting Petroleum WLL.N
filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Its shares nearly
halved in value. The energy sector .SPNY shed another 6%, with experts now
saying oil prices could touch single digits, exacerbated by a
share tussle among top producers as the world runs out of
storage space. Shares of airlines and cruise operators fell further with
United Airlines UAL.O and Carnival Corp CCL.N plunging 18%,
making them the biggest decliners on the S&P 500.
At 13:00 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 919.95 points, or 4.20%, at 20,997.21, the S&P 500
.SPX was down 113.37 points, or 4.39%, at 2,471.22. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 303.22 points, or 3.94%, at 7,396.88.
With the quarterly earnings season set to begin in two
weeks, S&P 500 firms are expected to enter an earnings recession
in 2020, falling 3.7% in the first quarter and 9.6% in the
second.
However, some analysts expressed optimism.
"This will take some time to overcome, but markets will rise
in the second quarter on expectations of economic data sharply
improving in the second half of 2020," said Barry Bannister,
head of institutional equity strategy at Stifel Financial in
Baltimore.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 10.95-to-1
ratio on the NYSE and a 7.05-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded one new 52-week high and 11 new lows,
while the Nasdaq recorded seven new highs and 53 new lows.