US STOCKS-Wall St dives, S&P 500 sheds $2 trillion in value

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* Financial sector slumps on Fed's surprise rate cut
* Tech stocks plummet as Apple, Microsoft weigh
* Retail stocks tumble as Nike, Lululemon to close U.S.
stores
* Energy stocks slump as oil prices fall below $30/barrel
* Indexes plunge: Dow 10.03%, S&P 9.72%, Nasdaq 9.49%

(Updates to the open)
By Sanjana Shivdas and Medha Singh
March 16 (Reuters) - S&P 500 companies lost more than $2
trillion in value in the first few minutes of trading on Monday
as investors panicked about the mounting damage from the
coronavirus pandemic on the global economy.
Trading on the three main U.S. stock indexes was halted for
15 minutes at the open, the third such pause in six days, as the
benchmark index .SPX plunged 8% and triggered an automatic
cutout.
A sharp cut in interest rates by the Federal Reserve to
near-zero only added to the alarm, while traders worried that
the pandemic was paralyzing supply chains and squeezing company
finances. Rate-sensitive financial stocks .SPSY plunged 12.6%,
leading declines among the major S&P sectors. Energy stocks
.SPNY tracked a 10% slump in oil prices, while technology
stocks .SPLRCT also shed 10%.
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O and Microsoft
Corp MSFT.O together lost nearly $300 billion in market value.
Wall Street's fear gauge .VIX jumped 13 points to 70.83.
"The fear factor is going through the roof this morning,"
said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital
Securities in New York.
"Markets are spooked by the emergency of the central banks
stepping in and adding billions of dollars of liquidity."
World stocks plummeted 8%, oil prices slumped 10% and even
safe-haven gold took a hit as France and Spain joined Italy in
entering a virtual lockdown to contain the fast-spreading
disease. Bars, restaurants, theaters and movie houses in New
York and Los Angeles were ordered shut.
Underscoring the economic blow of the outbreak, severe virus
containment measures sent China's factory production tumbling at
its fastest pace in three decades. At 10:14 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 2,326.15 points, or 10.03%, at 20,859.47, while the S&P
500 .SPX was down 263.50 points, or 9.72%, at 2,447.52. The
Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was down 747.03 points, or 9.49%, at
7,127.84.
Another 1,000-point dip for the Dow will wipe out the entire
Trump-bump, taking the index to levels seen before the
presidency of Donald Trump.
The S&P 500 retail index .SPXTR fell 9.3% as Nike Inc
NKE.N , Lululemon Athletica Inc LULU.O and Under Armour Inc
UAA.N said they would close stores in the United States and
some other markets. The S&P 1500 airlines index .SPCOMAIR slumped 16.3% as
United Airlines Holdings Inc's UAL.O March revenue fell $1.5
billion and the airline warned employees that planes could be
flying nearly empty into the summer. Cruise line operators Carnival Corp CCL.N and Royal
Caribbean Cruises Ltd RCL.N dropped more than 13%.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers nearly 28-to-1 on the
NYSE and 16-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded no new 52-week high and 314 new lows,
while the Nasdaq recorded two new highs and 1,092 new lows.