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* Tech stocks lead Wall St lower in late morning trade
* E*Trade on pace for best day in more than a decade
* ViacomCBS slumps after earnings disappointment
* Indexes down: Dow 0.97%, S&P 0.97%, Nasdaq 1.42%
(Adds comment, details, updates prices)
By Medha Singh
Feb 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes fell about 1% on
Thursday, dragged down by technology heavyweights, as investors
fretted over a rise in the cases of coronavirus and its economic
impact.
Some traders pointed to a Global Times report https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1180281.shtml
that said a central Beijing hospital reported 36 new cases as
of Thursday, sparking a fresh wave of selling in late morning
trade.
The report said those infected at Fuxing Hospital in Xicheng
district were eight medical workers, nine cleaning staff and 19
patients along with their families, leading many to fear a
potential explosion in infection numbers in the capital.
"The story suggests that the virus has spread to medical
workers and people who help clean hospitals, so the markets are
shook up by that," said Keith Bliss, senior vice-president at
Cuttone & Co in New York.
Investors were already on the edge as the number of new
cases climbed in South Korea, Japan reported two new deaths and
research suggested that the virus was spreading faster than
previously thought. Recent policy easing by China, a largely
better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings season and hopes
that the economic jolt from the coronavirus will be short-lived
have pushed Wall Street's main indexes to new highs in recent
weeks.
Lou Brien, a market strategist at DRW Trading in Chicago,
said, "what's happening is that we had a very rapid move in
stocks and it could be that one strategy bumped into another and
all of a sudden someone had to liquidate."
Recent data from China had pointed to a slowdown in the
outbreak, but the figures partly reflected a change in the
diagnostic method, raising worries over whether the daily
tallies accurately reflect the spread of the virus. At 12:11 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 283.37 points, or 0.97%, at 29,064.66, the S&P 500
.SPX was down 32.79 points, or 0.97%, at 3,353.36. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 139.82 points, or 1.42%, at 9,677.37.
Technology stocks led the slide, with Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O down 2.5% and Apple Inc AAPL.O and Amazon.com Inc
AMZN.O dropping 1.3% each.
In other corporate news, ViacomCBS Inc VIAC.O slumped
16.8% as its earnings fell short of revenue and profit
expectations in its first quarterly earnings results since
closing its merger. E*Trade ETFC.O jumped 24% after Morgan Stanley MS.N
offered to buy it in a $13 billion stock deal, the biggest
acquisition by a Wall Street bank since the financial crisis.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.23-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and for a 1.68-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 33 new 52-week highs and four new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 118 new highs and 45 new lows.