US STOCKS-S&P 500, Dow sink to late-Sept lows on virus woes

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* Airlines, hotels down on fears of pandemic-led curbs
* GE jumps on surprise profit, positive cash flow
* Boeing dips after quarterly results
* Indexes down: Dow 3.1%, S&P 2.9%, Nasdaq 3%

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By Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan
Oct 28 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow hit their lowest
levels since late-September on Wednesday as a surge in
coronavirus cases in the United States and Europe dashed hopes
of a quick global economic recovery.
Shares of hotels, airlines and other companies sensitive to
COVID-19-related curbs fell with Wynn Resorts WYNN.O down 2%
and the S&P 1500 airlines index .SPCOMAIR declining 3%. The
energy index .SPNY lost about 3% as oil prices fell on fears
of lower fuel demand. O/R
New cases and hospitalizations set records in the U.S.
Midwest, while concerns over a national lockdown in France and
tighter restrictions in Germany sapped investor appetite for
risk. MKTS/GLOB
"Whether you call it a continuation of the pandemic or a
third wave of new case discovery - it is the largest concern,"
said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities
in New York.
"Unless and until we get through this pandemic, it is hard
for investors to imagine a better economic time."
A spiraling pandemic and a failure to reach a deal on a
fresh round of U.S. fiscal stimulus before the Nov. 3 election
have put the blue-chip Dow and the benchmark S&P 500 on track to
erase their gains for October.
With just six days to the election, Wall Street's fear gauge
.VIX spiked to its highest level since July 15, also on
concerns that a winner might not be declared the night of Nov. 3
due to a delay in counting the huge volume of mail-in ballots.

Democratic challenger Biden leads President Donald Trump
nationally by 10 percentage points, according to the
Reuters/Ipsos poll, but the competition is tighter in swing
states, which will decide the victor. "The uncertainty of not knowing the direction we are heading
is making investors step on the sidelines and wait for the
election results," Hogan said.
Losses were broad-based with technology stocks .SPLRCT
weighing the most.
The Big Tech companies - Apple AAPL.O , Alphabet GOOGL.O ,
Amazon AMZN.O and Facebook FB.O - which are due to report
results on Thursday, fell between 2.8% and 4.8%, weighing the
most on the S&P 500.
At 10:52 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
fell 841.00 points, or 3.06% to 26,622.19, the S&P 500 .SPX
lost 100.22 points, or 2.95% to 3,290.61 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC lost 348.70 points, or 3.05% to 11,082.65.
Of the 170 S&P 500 companies that have reported
third-quarter earnings so far, about 84% have topped
expectations, according to Refinitiv data. Profit on average is
expected to fall 16.4% from a year earlier.
Microsoft Corp 's MSFT.O quarterly results surpassed
analysts targets, benefiting from a pandemic-driven shift to
working from home and online learning. Its shares, however,
fell about 4% after rising 35% so far this year.
Boeing BA.N fell 3.8% after it reported its fourth
straight quarterly loss. General Electric Co GE.N was in a bright spot, jumping 8%
after posting a surprise quarterly profit and a positive cash
flow on the back of cost cuts and improvements in its power and
renewable energy businesses. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 14-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and for a 6.28-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded no new 52-week highs and seven new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded seven new highs and 106 new
lows.