US STOCKS-Wall St slides as Mnuchin says stimulus difficult before election

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* Goldman Sachs rises as profit nearly doubles
* Wells Fargo, Bank of America drop after results
* Indexes down: Dow 0.53%, S&P 0.69%, Nasdaq 0.97%

(Updates to early afternoon)
By Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan
Oct 14 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes fell on
Wednesday as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said it was
difficult that a deal on more fiscal stimulus would be reached
before the presidential election in November.
The downbeat comments added to the fragile sentiment
following a mixed bag of quarterly earnings reports from major
Wall Street lenders.
"At this point getting something done before the election
and executing on that would be difficult just given where we are
and the level of detail, but we're going to try to continue to
work through these issues," Mnuchin said at a conference
sponsored by the Milken Institute.
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and
Mnuchin had a productive discussion about relief proposals, but
the administration's lack of a national strategic testing plan
remained a "major area of disagreement", a Pelosi spokesman
said. They will speak again on Thursday, he added. "The market is a little worried about not having that extra
support for the next couple of months into the holidays," said
Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital LLC in New York.
"This was viewed as a bridge to a full therapeutic or a
vaccine (but) everything is getting delayed and without the
stimulus, there's not that short-term bridge that we needed to
get to the vaccine, to get us to the finish line."
Fading hopes of a deal on federal aid, as well as a halt in
trials of a COVID-19 vaccine and a treatment have pulled the
three main stock indexes back from one-month highs, but
investors have held out for stimulus after the Nov. 3
presidential election.
At 12:50 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 0.53%, the S&P 500 .SPX was down 0.69% and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 0.97%.
Goldman Sachs GS.N edged up as strength in its trading
business helped quarterly profit surge 94%, but Bank of America
BAC.N and Wells Fargo WFC.N shed 4.0% and 5.4%,
respectively, after a disappointing showing. The S&P 500 banks index .SPXBK dropped 1.4% as the
third-quarter earnings season took off amid improving
expectations over the extent of the drop in overall profits for
S&P 500 firms.
Analysts now expect earnings to fall 18.9% from a year
earlier, according to Refinitiv IBES data, versus a 25% drop
forecast on July 1.
Markets have also begun to digest the prospect of a
Democratic victory, strategists and fund managers said.
While many investors view Democratic candidate Joe Biden as
more likely to raise taxes, they are increasingly pointing to
potential benefits of a Biden presidency, such as greater
infrastructure spending and less global trade
uncertainty. Energy stocks .SPNY rose the most among major S&P sectors
on the back of a rise in oil prices. O/R
UnitedHealth Group Inc UNH.N dropped 2.8% despite raising
its profit forecast as the U.S. insurer said it was difficult to
predict the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic on earnings.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers 1.18-to-1 on the NYSE
and 1.60-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 22 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 100 new highs and nine new lows.