US STOCKS-S&P 500, Dow dip as Buffett ditches airlines, China tensions flare

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* Pompeo says "significant evidence" virus emerged from lab
* Airlines fall as Berkshire exits; Boeing down
* Tyson drops after sales warning
* High-growth stocks buoy Nasdaq
* Dow down 0.96%, S&P 500 falls 0.59%, Nasdaq flat

(Adds comments, updates to early afternoon)
By Shreyashi Sanyal and Medha Singh
May 4 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Dow Jones dropped for the
third session on Monday following a U.S.-China spat over the
origins of the coronavirus outbreak and billionaire Warren
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway's move to dump stakes in major U.S.
airlines.
Shares of Delta Air Lines Inc DAL.N , American Airlines
Group Inc AAL.O , Southwest Airlines Co LUV.N and United
Airlines Holdings Inc UAL.O fell between 7.8% and 10%, as
Buffett said "the world has changed" for the aviation industry.
Berkshire's BRKa.N move also shaved more than 4% off
planemaker Boeing Co's BA.N shares. The S&P 1500 airlines
sub-index .SPCOMAIR plunged 8% and was on track for its worst
day in more than a month.
Shares of the conglomerate fell 3% and weighed on the
financials index .SPSY after it posted a record quarterly loss
of nearly $50 billion.
Analysts said Buffett's relatively bleak reading of the
market had hit home with investors.
"The fact that he had sold airline stocks was perhaps a
realization that he sees a slow recovery for the economy for a
while at least," said James Ragan, director of Wealth Management
Research at D.A. Davidson in Seattle.
Nine of the major 11 S&P 500 sectors were trading lower,
also pressured by comments from U.S. Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo that there was "a significant amount of evidence" the
coronavirus emerged from a Chinese laboratory. An editorial in
China's Global Times said he was "bluffing". All three major stock indexes have clawed back more than 11%
in April, but the rally is likely to be tested in the coming
weeks as investors trying to assess the pace of an economic
recovery with states starting to emerge from lockdowns.
High-growth stocks such as Apple Inc AAPL.O , Microsoft
Corp MSFT.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , seen less disrupted
by the pandemic, kept the Nasdaq index .IXIC afloat.
"Market leadership has been concentrated in growth stocks
deemed to be relatively immune to the COVID-19 virus," said Marc
Chaikin, founder of Chaikin Analytics in Philadelphia.
At 13:11 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
down 228.87 points, or 0.96%, at 23,494.82, the S&P 500 .SPX
was down 16.72 points, or 0.59%, at 2,813.99 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was up 3.41 points, or 0.04%, at 8,608.36.
Data on Monday showed new orders for U.S.-made goods fell
more than expected in March and could sink further as the health
crisis upends supply chains and exports.
With more than half of the S&P 500 companies having reported
results so far, analysts now see first-quarter S&P 500 earnings
falling 12.5% from a year earlier, and an even sharper 39%
decline in the second quarter.
Tyson Foods Inc TSN.N tumbled 8.4% as the company said it
would temporarily close plants as needed and forecast meat sales
to fall in the second half of the year as shutdowns hammer
restaurants and other food outlets.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 2.19-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and for a 1.65-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded no new 52-week high and three new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 13 new highs and 11 new lows.