US STOCKS-Historic Fed boost fails to stem Wall Street's virus driven selloff

(Updates to early afternoon)
* Fed to lend against student loans, repurchase Treasuries
* More states under lockdown
* Goldman Sachs sees 24% plunge in Q2 U.S. real GDP
* Energy biggest loser among major S&P 500 sectors
* Indexes off: Dow 1.99%, S&P 1.82%, Nasdaq 0.05%

By Uday Sampath Kumar and Medha Singh
March 23 (Reuters) - Wall Street's slide deepened further on
Monday as the rapidly spreading coronavirus forced more U.S.
states into lockdown, overshadowing unprecedented moves by the
U.S. Federal Reserve to shore up credit across the economy.
After cutting interest rates to near zero recently, the Fed
will now lend against student loans and credit card loans, as
well as back the purchase of corporate bonds and make direct
loans to companies. The unprecedented steps briefly lifted U.S. stock index
futures more than 3% earlier in the session, but the mounting
death toll from COVID-19 and a tide of lockdowns quickly sent
the main indexes back into the red, putting the S&P 500 .SPX
on pace for its worst month since World War Two.
"What the Fed did is important because it does help in the
credit markets. But it's not enough from an equity market
perspective," said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at
Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.
"What we now need is leadership out of Congress to pass some
sort of stimulus bill, because what the Fed's doing is relieving
some problems, but it doesn't do enough to solve to solve what's
out there."
Investors had hoped the U.S. Senate would clear a $1
trillion-plus coronavirus stimulus package over the weekend, but
Democrats and Republicans were still scrambling to come to an
agreement. Maryland, Ohio, Louisiana and Delaware joined New York and
California in asking people to stay home, foreshadowing a near
halt in economic activity and more pain for U.S. equities and
prompting several analysts to slash their growth forecasts.
Goldman Sachs expects an outright contraction in global real
GDP in 2020 on the back of a 24% plunge in U.S. real GDP in the
second quarter: two-and-a-half times as large as the previous
post-war record. The Fed's stimulus measures failed to reassure investors
jolted by a $9 trillion wipeout in the benchmark S&P 500's value
since a record high hit last month. A rush for safe-haven assets
like government bonds caused U.S. Treasury yields to fall on
Monday. US/
At 12:46 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
down 380.84 points, or 1.99%, at 18,793.14 and the S&P 500
.SPX was down 42.00 points, or 1.82%, at 2,262.92. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 3.25 points, or 0.05%, at 6,876.27.
The energy sector .SPNY dropped more than 5%, the most
among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, tracking a plunge in oil
prices. O/R
The defensive utilities .SPLRCU and real estate .SPLRCR
sectors also dropped about 4% each.
Boeing BA.N was among the top gainers on the Dow .DJI ,
rising 4.44% after Goldman Sachs upgraded its rating on the
planemaker to "buy". Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 3.63-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 1.87-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded no new 52-week high and 203 new lows,
while the Nasdaq recorded two new highs and 450 new lows.