US STOCKS-Pandemic fears grip Wall Street, Dow dives 800 points

(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* Indexes drop: Dow 2.81%, S&P 2.69%, Nasdaq 3.20%
* High-growth technology stocks lead slide
* Wall Street's fear gauge surges to six-month high
* Health insurers fall after Bernie Sanders' Nevada victory

(Adds comment, details; updates prices)
By Medha Singh
Feb 24 (Reuters) - The Dow Jones Industrials fell more than
800 points and the S&P 500 as well as the Nasdaq hit three-week
lows on Monday as a surge in coronavirus cases outside China
fueled global growth worries and pushed investors to safer
assets.
An increase in cases in Iran, Italy and South Korea over the
weekend fanned fears of a pandemic, boosting gold prices and
deepening the yield curve inversion between the 3-month and
10-year U.S. Treasury yields. An inversion of the curve is a
classic recession signal. US/
All of the Dow's 30 blue-chip members and the 11 major S&P
sectors were in the red. Leading the slide was a 3.4% drop in
technology stocks .SPLRCT . The defensive utilities .SPLRCU
and real estate .SPLRCR indexes posted the smallest declines.
Apple Inc APPL.O slid 4.1% as data showed sales of
smartphones in China tumbled by more than a third in January.
Last week, Wall Street's main indexes notched record highs,
partly on optimism that the global economy would be able to snap
back after an initial hit, supported by central banks.
"It is not as though the numbers have changed dramatically
but what has changed is the geography, which adds a new level of
concern," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National
Securities in New York.
"What the market is trying to predict here is how large will
this get globally, and when will it start to peak."
China-exposed chipmakers slipped with the Philadelphia SE
Semiconductor index .SOX dropping 4%, while concerns about
growing travel curbs dragged the NYSE Arca Airline Index .XAL
down 6%.
The benchmark S&P 500 fell below its 50-day moving average
and the blue-chip Dow slipped below its 100-day moving average,
all closely watched indicators of momentum.
The CBOE Volatility Index .VIX , a gauge of investor
anxiety, jumped to a six-month high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was down 815.31
points, or 2.81%, at 28,177.10, the S&P 500 .SPX was down
89.94 points, or 2.69%, at 3,247.81. The Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was down 306.59 points, or 3.20%, at 9,270.01.
Health insurers such as UnitedHealth Group Inc UNH.N and
Cigna Corp CI.N dropped nearly 7% as Bernie Sanders, who backs
the elimination of private health insurance, strengthened his
position for the Democratic presidential nomination with a
victory in the Nevada caucuses. In a rare bright spot, Gilead Sciences Inc GILD.O , whose
antiviral remdesivir has shown promise in monkeys infected by a
related coronavirus, rose 4.5%.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 6.19-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 7.25-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded seven new 52-week highs and 20 new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 13 new highs and 125 new lows.