US STOCKS-Futures lower as China virus outbreak, growth fears sour mood

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* Futures down: Dow 0.13%, S&P 0.27%, Nasdaq 0.35%

By Sruthi Shankar
Jan 21 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures followed Asian
and European markets lower on Tuesday as worries about the
fallout from a deadly virus outbreak in China and a gloomy
growth outlook from the IMF looked set to stall a record rally
on Wall Street.
Officials confirmed the new coronavirus outbreak took six
lives and that it could spread between humans, stoking fears of
a global pandemic and reviving memories of Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) - another coronavirus that killed
nearly 800 people in 2002-03. Travel stocks including Delta Air Lines Inc DAL.N , United
Airlines Holdings Inc UAL.O and American Airlines Group Inc
AAL.O fell over 2% in premarket trading.
Hotel and casino operators Las Vegas Sands Corp LVS.N and
Wynn Resorts Ltd WYNN.O , both of which have large operations
in China, dropped about 5%.
A top International Monetary Fund official said on Monday
that a slowdown in global growth appears to have bottomed out
but there is no rebound in sight. The IMF trimmed its global
growth forecasts for 2020 and 2021. The developments weighed on U.S. investors returning from a
long holiday weekend. Strong economic data, the signing of the
Phase 1 U.S.-China trade deal and an upbeat start to
fourth-quarter earnings season had sent Wall Street to new
all-time highs on Friday, helping post their strongest weekly
gains since August.
However, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the
Wall Street Journal that the Phase 2 trade deal with China would
not necessarily be a "big bang" that removes all existing
tariffs. At 7:34 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 39 points,
or 0.13%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 9 points, or 0.27%
and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 32 points, or 0.35%.
Halliburton Co HAL.N rose 2% after the oilfield service
provider beat estimates for quarterly profit, helped by higher
drilling activity in international markets. Bank of America's fund manager survey showed that U.S.
technology and high-growth stocks have been the "most crowded"
trade for three months in a row and forecast S&P 500 .SPX
index to peak at 3,400 in the third quarter.