US STOCKS-Indexes fall, led by tech decline on mounting fears coronavirus could spread

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* E*Trade on pace for best day in more than a decade
* ViacomCBS slumps after earnings disappointment
* Indexes down: Dow 0.6%, S&P 0.5%, Nasdaq 0.8%

(New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments
to late afternoon)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Feb 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Thursday,
led down by technology heavyweights, after reports of new
coronavirus cases in China and other countries intensified fears
over its spread and impact on the global economy.
Investors were unnerved by a quick, sharp drop in indexes in
late morning trade, with some traders attributing the move to a
Global Times report that a central Beijing hospital had reported
36 new cases. This raised worries about a potential explosion of
infections in the capital. Investors were already skittish after Japan reported two new
deaths and South Korea reported a rise in new infections.
Research suggested the virus was spreading faster than
previously thought. "The overlying question is the uncertainty over the
coronavirus and whether it's going to spread further and impact
global economic activity before things stabilize and ultimately
get better," said Michael Sheldon, executive director and CIO at
RDM Financial Group at Hightower in Westport, Connecticut.
He said investors were taking profits in some of the
better-performing technology names.
Tech stocks .SPLRCT declined 1.1%. Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O , Apple Inc AAPL.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O dropped
about 1% each and weighed the most on the benchmark index.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 161.99 points,
or 0.55%, to 29,186.04, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 17.31 points, or
0.51%, to 3,368.84 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
81.81 points, or 0.83%, to 9,735.37.
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. E*Trade ETFC.O jumped 22% 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.
In other corporate news, ViacomCBS Inc VIAC.O slumped
17.1% as its earnings fell short of revenue and profit
expectations in its first quarterly earnings results since
closing its merger. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.32-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.06-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 40 new 52-week highs and 4 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 131 new highs and 54 new lows.