US STOCKS-Wall Street slides as investors brace for dour earnings

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* Banks drop ahead of earnings reports this week
* Ford slides on profit warning
* Energy stocks rise after OPEC+ agrees record output cut
* Indexes off: Dow 2.01%, S&P 1.78%, Nasdaq 0.79%

(Adds quote, details; Updates prices)
By Medha Singh and Akanksha Rana
April 13 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes slipped on
Monday as corporate America launches into what is expected to be
a painful quarterly earnings season due to the coronavirus
pandemic.
JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N and Wells Fargo & Co WFC.N
will kick off the reporting season on Tuesday, with analysts
expecting an uptick in trading revenue to be countered by
declines in other businesses and a bleak outlook for the rest of
2020. The S&P banking subsector .SPXBK shed 3.6%, while the
broader financial sector .SPSY dragged on the benchmark S&P
500.
Overall, earnings for S&P 500 firms are expected to tumble
10.2% in the first quarter, compared with a Jan. 1 forecast of a
6.3% rise, before plummeting 22.4% in the second quarter as
sweeping lockdowns halt business activity and spark furloughs.
"This week will be somewhat of an inkblot test," said Mike
Loewengart, managing director of investment strategy at E*TRADE
Financial Corp in New York.
"There are multiple ways to read the state of play as
earnings roll out, is the downturn fully priced in or is there
cause for more downward pressure?"
The S&P 500 .SPX has recovered about 24% since hitting a
three-year low in March, powered by aggressive U.S. monetary and
fiscal stimulus and early signs of a potential peaking in U.S.
coronavirus cases, but remains about 19% below its mid-February
record high.
A staggering 16 million Americans have filed for jobless
claims in the three weeks to April 4 and economists expect U.S.
unemployment spiking to Depression-era levels in coming weeks as
entire sectors shut down to try and contain the pandemic.
The outbreak could reach its U.S. peak this week, a top
health official said on Monday, as the White House considers
when and how to lift stay-at-home restrictions. "More than likely, this will be a slow, rolling re-opening
of the economy and with the threat of new flare-ups of the
virus, policymakers will likely be more cautious than courageous
in reversing current guidelines," said Peter Cecchini, global
chief market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York.
At 11:30 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 476.34 points, or 2.01%, at 23,243.03, the S&P 500
.SPX was down 49.76 points, or 1.78%, at 2,740.06 and the
Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was down 64.08 points, or 0.79%, at
8,089.49.
Carnival Corp CCL.N , Royal Caribbean Cruises RCL.N and
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings NCLH.N tumbled between 8.8% and
14% as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
extended its "no sail order" for all cruise ships. Ford Motor Co F.N shed 5.8% after the carmaker projected
quarterly adjusted loss before interest and taxes to be about
$600 million, compared with a profit of $2.4 billion a year
earlier. Caterpillar Inc CAT.N tumbled 8.2% after Bank of America
Global Research downgraded the heavy equipment maker to
"underperform".
Declining issues outnumbered advancers more than 3-to-1 on
the NYSE and 2-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded two new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded nine new highs and five new lows.