US STOCKS-China virus outbreak impedes Wall Street rally; Netflix earnings on deck

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* Airlines, travel stocks hit by China virus fears
* Morgan Stanley drops after Citi downgrade
* Halliburton up after profit beats estimates
* Indexes: Dow off 0.08%, S&P down 0.04%, Nasdaq up 0.02%

(Updates to early afternoon)
By Sruthi Shankar
Jan 21 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes paused near
all-time highs on Tuesday, as concerns about the fallout from a
deadly virus outbreak in China and a downbeat growth outlook
from the IMF prompted investors to lock in recent gains.
The developments soured the mood among U.S. investors who
had propelled the indexes to record highs last week, encouraged
by strong data, the signing of the Phase 1 U.S.-China trade deal
and an upbeat start to fourth-quarter earnings.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC , however, hit a record in late
morning trade, helped by positive research recommendations on
Tesla Inc TSLA.O and Intel Corp INTC.O .
Netflix Inc NFLX.O was down 1%, while International
Business Machines Corp IBM.N rose 0.5% ahead of results
scheduled after markets close.
71% of the 46 S&P 500 companies that have reported results
so far, have topped Wall Street's profit estimates, according to
Refinitiv IBES data. However, analysts forecast earnings to have
dropped 0.9% in the fourth quarter.
Chinese officials confirmed on Tuesday 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 outbreak that
killed nearly 800 people in 2002-03. With the virus spreading just ahead of the Chinese New Year
holidays, the S&P 1500 airlines index .SPCOMAIR fell 2.6%.
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 4%.
"It's one of many factors that investors are considering.
But I think focus is going to be on earnings season that's in
front of us," said Gordon Charlop, a managing director at
Rosenblatt Securities in New York.
"We're watching the Davos, impeachment hearings, but at the
moment, there's nothing terribly remarkable about any of those
events."
At 12:59 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 0.08% at 29,325.01. The S&P 500 .SPX slipped 0.04% to
3,328.33 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 0.02% to
9,390.69.
Another cause for concern was the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) trimming its global growth forecasts for 2020 and
2021, mostly due to a sharper-than-expected slowdown in India
and other emerging markets. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.42-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 1.37-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 85 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 118 new highs and 31 new lows.