US STOCKS-Wall St tumbles on soaring virus cases, worries about U.S. stimulus

* 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 2.2%, Nasdaq 2.2%

(New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments;
new byline, adds NEW YORK dateline)
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, Oct 26 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks tumbled on Monday,
with the S&P 500 headed for its biggest daily decline in almost
seven weeks, as soaring coronavirus cases and uncertainty about
a fiscal relief bill in Washington dimmed the outlook for the
U.S. economic recovery.
The United States, Russia and France set daily records for
coronavirus infections. The number of hospitalized Americans
with COVID-19 rose to a two-month high. Travel-related stocks, vulnerable to COVID-19 related curbs,
dropped. The S&P 1500 airlines index .SPCOMAIR fell 5.9% and
cruise line operators Carnival Corp CCL.N and Royal Caribbean
Cruises Ltd RCL.N shed 8.8% and 11.2%, respectively.
"Fears about COVID-19 resurgence and the continued failure
to reach a fiscal policy package between Republicans and
Democrats has investors unnerved," said Michael Arone, chief
investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston.
"Those are the two biggest drivers of today's decline."
The energy .SPNY index tracked a more than 3% fall in oil
prices, falling 3.9%. The economically sensitive industrials
.SPLRCI and financials .SPSY also posted steep declines
among S&P sectors. O/R
In talks on U.S. fiscal relief from the pandemic,
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said there were a
number of areas in House of Representatives Speaker Nancy
Pelosi's plan that President Donald Trump cannot accept.
Wall Street's fear gauge .VIX hit its highest in more than
seven weeks as uncertainty grew over the Nov. 3 election. Some
60 million Americans have voted in a record-breaking early
turnout as Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden entered
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 is among the only three sectors
apart from healthcare .SPXHC and consumer staples .SPLRCS
expected to post an increase in profit from a year earlier.
Of the 139 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported
earnings so far, 83.5% have beaten Wall Street expectations,
according to Refinitiv data.
At 2:21 p.m. ET (1821 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average
.DJI fell 779.76 points, or 2.75%, to 27,555.81. The S&P 500
.SPX lost 78.66 points, or 2.27%, to 3,386.73 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC dropped 251.20 points, or 2.18%, to 11,297.08.
Software company Oracle Corp ORCL.N fell 4.1% 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 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 0.4% and 1.4%.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
8.06-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 5.49-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted three new 52-week highs and two new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 26 new highs and 45 new lows.