US STOCKS-Dow futures shed 600 points on lockdown fears, stimulus uncertainty

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* Shares of airline, cruise, hotel and casino companies
tumble
* Big lenders fall on reports banks moved illicit funds
* GM slips as founder of electric-truck maker Nikola resigns
* Futures tumble: Dow 2.27%, S&P 500 1.91%, Nasdaq 1.67%

(Adds comments, updates prices throughout)
By Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal
Sept 21 (Reuters) - Dow futures fell more than 600 points on
Monday as concerns about fresh coronavirus-driven lockdowns and
the inability of Congress to agree on more fiscal stimulus
raised fears about another hit to the domestic economy.
Shares of airline, hotel and cruise companies led declines
in premarket trading, tracking their European peers as the UK
signalled the possibility of a second national lockdown.
Marriott International Inc MAR.O , Hilton Worldwide
Holdings Inc HLT.N and Hyatt Hotels Corp H.N dropped between
2% and 4%, while casino operators Wynn Resorts Ltd WYNN.O , MGM
Resorts International MGM.N and Las Vegas Sands Corp LVS.N
shed between 3.6% and 6%.
Another round of business restrictions would also threaten a
nascent recovery in the wider economy, analysts said, and could
spark a flight from equities. The first round of lockdowns in
March had led the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX to suffer its worst
monthly decline since the global financial crisis. US/
The index has since rebounded, thanks to historic global
stimulus, but is on track to halt a five-month winning streak as
investors dump heavyweight technology-related stocks.
Companies including Apple Inc AAPL.O , Facebook Inc FB.O
and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , which had dominated Wall Street's
rally since April, slid between 1.8% and 2.4% in early deals.
Thomas Mantione, managing director at UBS Private Wealth
Management in Stamford, Connecticut, said the passing of U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also decreases the
chances of another fiscal stimulus package to help lift the
domestic economy from a deep recession.
"You've now put yet another negotiating factor into that
fiscal stimulus policy response, which makes it even less likely
to pass before the November election," Mantione said.
Congress has for weeks remained deadlocked over the size and
shape of a fifth coronavirus-response bill, on top of the
approximately $3 trillion already enacted into law.
President Donald Trump said he is looking at four or five
jurists to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S.
Supreme Court and he will announce his nominee on Friday or
Saturday. At 8:31 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 626 points,
or 2.27%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 63.25 points, or
1.91% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 182.25 points, or
1.67%.
The CBOE Market Volatility index .VIX , a measure of
investor anxiety, shot up to its highest level in nearly two
weeks.
Nikola Corp NKLA.O crashed 25.8% after its founder Trevor
Milton stepped down as executive chairman, as the U.S.
electric-truck maker battles allegations from a short-seller
that it misled investors and automakers. General Motors Co GM.N , which took an 11% stake in Nikola
for about $2 billion earlier this month, slipped 4.2%.
Shares in JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N and Bank of New York
Mellon Corp BK.N fell 4.6% and 4.4%, respectively, after
BuzzFeed and other media reported they and other banks moved
large sums of allegedly illicit funds over nearly two decades
despite red flags about the origins of the money. Other big U.S. banks were also trading lower.
Illumina Inc ILMN.O fell 3.0% after the gene sequencing
company said it will pay $8 billion in cash and stock to buy
cancer screening startup Grail Inc.