US STOCKS-The S&P 500 has worst day since October as virus fears mount

(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window)
* Intel rises after strong forecast
* Officials confirm second U.S. case of coronavirus
* Investors eye Apple, Facebook, Amazon earnings next week
* Indexes drop: Dow 0.58%, S&P 0.90%, Nasdaq 0.93%

(Updates to market close)
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Wall Street fell in a broad
sell-off on Friday, as investors fled equities on growing
concerns over the scope of the coronavirus outbreak, capping the
S&P 500's worst week in six months.
All three major U.S. stock averages turned sharply negative,
with the S&P 500 seeing its biggest one-day percentage drop in
over three months after the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention confirmed the second case of the virus on U.S. soil,
this time in Chicago. S&P 500 and Dow wrapped up their worst week since August and
the Nasdaq snapped a six-week winning streak.
Market participants kept a wary eye on developments
surrounding the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization
(WHO) deemed "an emergency in China," having now killed 26
people and infected more than 800 on the eve of the Lunar New
Year holiday. "Markets hate uncertainty and the virus has been enough to
inject uncertainty in the markets," said David Carter, chief
investment officer at Lenox Wealth Advisors in New York.
But some analysts believe the investors were looking for a
reason to take money off the table.
"The virus is really more an excuse to take profits right
now," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist of CFRA
Research in New York.
Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management
in Chicago, agreed. "The markets are expensive and were looking
for a reason to go down, and (the virus) is the excuse to do
it."
Intel Corp's INTC.O stock surged 8.1% after reporting
jumps in data center and cloud computing revenue and forecasting
better-than-expected 2020 earnings. Consumer credit company American Express Co AXP.N
benefited from a robust U.S. retail sales environment, posting a
better-than-expected 9% annual revenue increase. Its stock
advanced 2.8%. Fourth-quarter reporting season is well under way, with 74
companies in the S&P 500 having reported, 68.2% of which have
beaten Wall Street estimates, according to Refinitiv data.
Analysts now expect earnings to have contracted by 0.5%, on
aggregate, in the October to December quarter.
Next week, a swarm of closely watched results are expected,
notably from Apple Inc AAPL.O , McDonald's Corp MCD.N ,
Starbucks Corp SBUX.O , Tesla Inc TSLA.O , Amazon.com Inc
AMZN.O , Boeing Co BA.N , Facebook Inc FB.O and Caterpillar
Inc CAT.N , among others.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 170.36 points,
or 0.58%, to 28,989.73, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 30.09 points, or
0.90%, to 3,295.45 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
87.57 points, or 0.93%, to 9,314.91.
Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, all but utilities
.SPLRCU ended the session in the red, with healthcare .SPXHC
and financial .SPSY suffering the largest percentage losses.
Broadcom Inc AVGO.O rose 1.3% after entering an agreement
with Apple Inc AAPL.O for the supply of wireless components
used in its products. Rivals Skyworks Solutions SWKS.O and Qorvo Inc QRVO.O
were down 4.6% and 4.5%, respectively, on the news.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
2.33-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.94-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 85 new 52-week highs and 5 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 115 new highs and 62 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.96 billion shares, compared
with the 7.13 billion average over the last 20 trading days.