US STOCKS-Wall St tumbles as virus cases soar, stimulus hopes fade

(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* Travel-related stocks fall as COVID-19 cases soar
* Hasbro falls after reporting quarterly results
* Oracle down as rival SAP scraps medium-term margin goals
* Indexes down: Dow 2.7%, S&P 2.1%, Nasdaq 1.75%

(Updates to early afternoon)
By Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan
Oct 26 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks decline picked pace on Monday
afternoon, setting the Dow for its worst day in more than seven
weeks, as soaring coronavirus cases and a political deadlock
over the fiscal relief bill raised doubts about the fate of the
economy recovery.
New infections have touched record levels in the United
States, with El Paso in Texas asking citizens to stay at home
for the next two weeks. In Europe, Italy and Spain imposed new
restrictions. Travel-related stocks, vulnerable to COVID-19 related curbs,
dropped. The S&P 1500 airlines index .SPCOMAIR fell 5% and
cruise line operators Carnival Corp CCL.N and Royal Caribbean
Cruises Ltd RCL.N shed more than 9.5% each.
"People are nervous about the expansion in cases," said
Christopher C. Grisanti, chief equity strategist, MAI Capital
Management, Cleveland, Ohio.
"The administration has said it does not want to slow down
the economy yet as cases rise they may not have a choice."
Energy .SPNY index tracked a more than 3% fall in oil
prices. Other economically-sensitive industrials .SPLRCI and
financials .SPSY sectors posted the steepest percentage
declines among S&P sectors. (O/R)
Meanwhile, chances of a fiscal stimulus before the
presidential election faded as U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve
Mnuchin said there were a number of areas in House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi's plan that President Donald Trump cannot accept.
Wall Street's fear gauge .VIX hit a near seven-week high
even as 60 million Americans voted in a record breaking early
turnout as Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden enter
their final week of campaigning. It is also one of the busiest weeks of the third-quarter
earnings season that will see results from mega-cap U.S. tech
firms including Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O ,
Google-parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O and Facebook Inc FB.O .
The tech sector .SPLRCT , which includes Apple, is among
the only three sectors apart from healthcare .SPXHC and
consumer staples .SPLRCS that is expected to post an increase
in profit compared to a year earlier.
Of the 139 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported
earnings so far, 83.5% of them have beaten Wall Street
expectations, according to Refinitiv data.
At 12:30 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
fell 767.14 points or 2.68% to 27,577.43, the S&P 500 .SPX
lost 73.59 points or 2.11% to 3,392.13 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC lost 201.99 points, or 1.75% to 11,347.51.
Software company Oracle Corp ORCL.N fell about 4% after
German rival SAP SAPG.DE abandoned medium-term profitability
targets and warned of a longer than expected recovery time from
the pandemic hit.
Hasbro Inc HAS.O tumbled 10% as quarterly adjusted revenue
fell due to coronavirus-led delays in the production of movies
and TV shows. Companies deemed stay-at-home winners including Amazon.com
Inc AMZN.O , Zoom Video Communications Inc ZM.O and video
game companies Activision Blizzard Inc ATVI.O and Take-Two
Interactive Software Inc TTWO.O rose between 2.2% and 0.3%.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 7.91-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and for a 5.00-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded three new 52-week highs and two new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 24 new highs and 38 new lows.