US STOCKS-Boeing leads Wall St slump as corporate damage grows

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* S&P 500 nears 7% trading halt threshold
* Boeing slumps; calls for $60 bln lifeline
* General Mills ups forecast on bulk-buying
* Indexes down: Dow 4.33%, S&P 3.82%, Nasdaq 2.93%

(Updates to open)
By Medha Singh
March 18 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes sank again
on Wednesday, as growing signs of coronavirus damage to
corporate America overshadowed a burst of optimism about
sweeping official moves to protect the economy.
Boeing Co BA.N took another big hit, falling 16.1% as the
planemaker called for a $60 billion bailout for aerospace
manufacturers facing the pain of an extended collapse in global
travel. The S&P 1500 airlines index .SPCOMAIR dropped 13% while
hotel operators Hilton Worldwide Holdings HLT.N , Marriott
International Inc MAR.O and online agency Expedia EXPE.O
were among the top fallers on the S&P 500 .SPX .
The benchmark slipped 3.82%, inching close to the 7%
threshold that triggers another 15-minute halt - a familiar
feature of two weeks of huge losses which have shattered Wall
Street's longest ever bull run.
"We're just in panic mode here," said Peter Cardillo, chief
market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
"The fear of, maybe, deflation setting in, is probably one
of the reasons why the market is acting the way it is."
Wall Street's main indexes had bounced on Tuesday from a
massive selloff a day earlier, as the Trump administration
pressed for a $1 trillion stimulus package and the Federal
Reserve relaunched a plan to purchase short-term corporate debt.
However, investors feared that even dramatic stimulus will
not be able to avert a deep recession, as the COVID-19 disease
continues to spread rapidly across the globe and estimates for
the duration of the damage extend out into the summer.
Worries about mass debt defaults or writedowns to come also
has U.S. banks under pressure, with the S&P 500 banking
subsector .SPXBK down 5.6%.
"If you have lots of companies drawing down their credit
facilities to make sure that they can keep their businesses
running then it's a reasonable assumption that banks will have
some credit problems down the road," said Keith Bliss​, managing
partner at iQ Capital (USA) LLC, in New York.
Apple Inc AAPL.O dropped 2.9% as analysts anticipated a
significant blow to its business from temporary store closures.
Even Cheerios maker General Mills Inc GIS.N , which raised its
profit forecast citing consumer bulk-buying, fell 4.3%.
Boeing, just a year ago seen as a perpetual growth stock and
a symbol of U.S. tech and industrial power, has now lost more
than 60% of its value, while the market overall has fallen by
around a third - or around $7 trillion in value.
The collapse into a bear market, among the fastest in
history, has spurred some calls for a pause in trading. Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin late on Tuesday reiterated the
administration will keep markets open, while suggesting trading
hours could be shortened at some point.
The idea of shortened hours drew immediate opposition from a
number of leading investors and exchange managers, who said it
would harm the market's credibility. At 10:09 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 919.45 points, or 4.33%, at 20,317.93, the S&P 500
.SPX was down 96.62 points, or 3.82%, at 2,432.57. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 214.97 points, or 2.93%, at 7,119.81.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 10.65-to-1
ratio on the NYSE and for a 4.70-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded four new 52-week highs and 155 new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded six new highs and 421 new lows.