US STOCKS-Wall St loses ground on fears of NY virus spread

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* Stocks pull back as NY monitors coronavirus cases

* U.S. health officials warn of pandemic

* Trump to speak on coronavirus at 6 p.m. ET

* Dow down 0.42%, S&P 0.30%, Nasdaq up 0.03%

(Updates to late afternoon, adds commentary, changes byline,

adds New York dateline)

By Sinéad Carew

New York, Feb 26 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks lost ground with

the S&P falling to session lows in a volatile session on

investor jitters on Wednesday over the prospect of coronavirus

cases in New York after officials said they were monitoring 83

people who visited China.

While health officials in Nassau County, New York, said they

were monitoring people that may have come in contact with the

coronavirus, the sell-off appeared to ease a little after

Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state has had no confirmed cases

so far. "We need to more information before markets have a further

correction or get comfortable things won't escalate further,"

said Jason Draho, head of Americas asset allocation at UBS

Global Wealth Management, New York.

He noted that any reports or rumors about cases in large

metropolitan areas could have a bigger effect on investor nerves

due to the possibility of a faster spreading in a denser

population as well as the potential economic impact.

"Markets will be very jumpy until there's increasing

confidence the virus is abating and that it won't be a global

pandemic," said Draho.

At 2:31 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI

fell 114.18 points, or 0.42%, to 26,967.18, the S&P 500 .SPX

lost 9.46 points, or 0.30%, to 3,118.75 and the Nasdaq Composite

.IXIC added 3.10 points, or 0.03%, to 8,968.71.

Before the New York report, the indexes had already lost

ground after several health officials expressed concerns about

the outbreak.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials warned the

outbreak was on a path to becoming a pandemic, according to a

report. Also the health minister in Germany said the country was at

the beginning of an epidemic after new cases sprung up which can

no longer be traced to the virus's original source in China.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold a news

conference on the coronavirus at 6 p.m. ET (2300 GMT).

The main indexes have declined in the past four sessions and

the Dow .DJI shed more than 1,900 points in the last two days

on fears of a pandemic. The S&P 500 .SPX is still about 8% off

its record high reached last Wednesday.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a

1.82-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.68-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 2 new 52-week highs and 45 new lows; the

Nasdaq Composite recorded 20 new highs and 198 new lows.