US STOCKS-Futures fall on fears of prolonged economic downturn

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* Cisco rises as profit, revenue top estimates
* Wall Street's fear gauge near 10-day high
* Futures fall: Dow 1.45%, S&P 1.16%, Nasdaq 1.02%

(Adds comment, details; Updates prices)
By Medha Singh
May 14 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set to
extend declines on Thursday, following two prior sessions of
losses, as investors worried the current economic downturn might
be here for longer than initially presumed.
Futures fell further after data showed 2.98 million
Americans filed for state unemployment benefits last week,
higher than economists' estimates and cementing expectations for
a third straight month of massive job losses in May.
However, this marked the sixth straight weekly drop in
jobless claims, since topping 6 million in the final week of
March.
The three main stock indexes are now headed for their worst
week since mid-March, as hopes of a quick economic recovery were
dashed this week following sobering comments from Federal
Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and leading U.S. infectious
disease expert Anthony Fauci.
Wall Street's fear gauge, the CBOE volatility index .VIX
rose for the third straight day, hovering near a 10-day high.
"Powell's comments sent a reminder to equity bulls that the
economy cannot be turned on by a switch and when it begins to
recover, it may be more gradual than hoped," said Hussein Sayed,
chief market strategist at FXTM.
The focus now turns to retail sales data on Friday that will
reflect the impact of stay-at-home orders on the U.S. consumer
in April.
A new report indicated credit card spending among some of JP
Morgan Chase & Co's U.S. customers fell 40% during March and
early April compared to last year. "Our expectation is that the last two, maybe three weeks is
probably the worst that we'll see from the economic data,
because states are opening, we should see a gradual recovery,"
said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management
in Chicago.
At 8:46 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 337 points,
or 1.45%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 32.75 points, or
1.16% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 92 points, or
1.02%.
Beaten-down travel stocks including United Airlines Holdings
Inc UAL.O , American Airlines Group Inc AAL.O , hotel operator
Marriott International Inc MAR.O fell between 2.3% and 5.2%
premarket.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd NCLH.N dropped 4.5% as
it swung to a quarterly loss due to a virtual standstill in
global travel earlier this year. Among other stocks, Cisco Systems Inc CSCO.O rose 1.1%
after beating quarterly revenue and profit estimates, as
lockdowns globally boosted demand for its remote-work tools and
networking equipment. The earnings season is in its final stretch with 448 S&P 500
companies having reported so far. On average, first-quarter
earnings are expected to fall 12.2%, according to Refinitiv
data.