US STOCKS-Wall St closes sharply lower as Trump tests positive for coronavirus

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* Stocks slightly pare losses on White House reassurances,
stimulus hopes
* U.S. jobs growth slows more than expected in September
* Airlines gain on news of possible new aid package
* Indexes down: Dow 0.48%, S&P 0.96%, Nasdaq 2.22%

(Adds closing prices, weekly changes)
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, Oct 2 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed lower on
Friday as news that U.S. President Donald Trump tested positive
for COVID-19 put investors in a risk-off mood and added to
mounting uncertainties surrounding the looming election.
Tech shares weighed heaviest on the indexes, but the
blue-chip Dow's losses were mitigated by gains in economically
sensitive cyclical stocks.
Despite Friday's sell-off, the S&P and the Nasdaq both
gained 1.5% on the week, while the Dow ended the session 1.9%
higher than last Friday's close.
Trump tweeted late Thursday that he had contracted the
coronavirus and would be placed under quarantine, compounding
the unknowns for an already volatile market.
But stocks pared losses after the White House provided
assurances that Trump, while experiencing mild symptoms, is not
incapacitated.
"This injects further uncertainty into the outcome of the
election," said Roberto Perli, head of global policy research at
Cornerstone Macro in Washington. "My read is that markets have
demonstrated an aversion of late especially to uncertainty, not
so much to one or the other candidate winning."
Equities also got a brief boost after U.S. House of
Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's announcement that an
agreement to provide another $25 billion in government
assistance to the airline industry was "imminent." are also paying attention to the likelihood that
another stimulus package will pass soon," Perli added. "If that
happens it could offset at least in part the uncertainty
generated by the COVID news."
House Democrats passed a $2.2 trillion fiscal aid package on
Thursday, but the bill is unlikely to be approved in the
Republican-controlled Senate. Partisan wrangling over the size and details of a new round
of stimulus have stalled, over two months after emergency
unemployment benefits expired for millions of Americans.
Data released on Friday showed the recovery of the labor
market could be losing steam. The U.S. economy added 661,000
jobs in September, fewer than expected and the slowest increase
since the recovery began in May. Payrolls remain a long way from regaining the 22 million
jobs lost since the initial shutdown, and the ranks of the
permanently unemployed are swelling.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 134.09 points,
or 0.48%, to 27,682.81, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 32.36 points, or
0.96%, to 3,348.44 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
251.49 points, or 2.22%, to 11,075.02.
Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, tech .SPLRCT
suffered the biggest loss, while real estate .SPLRCR and
utilities .SPLRCU enjoyed the largest percentage gains.
In a reversal from recent sessions, market leaders Apple Inc
AAPL.O Amazon.com AMZN.O and Microsoft Corp MSFT.O were
the heaviest drags on the S&P and the Nasdaq.
Commercial air carriers rose on news off a possible new
round of government aid, with the S&P 1500 Airline index
.SPCOMAIR rising 2.3%.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O shares plunged 7.4% after the electric
car maker's third quarter vehicle deliveries, while reaching a
new record, underwhelmed investors. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.45-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.13-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted six new 52-week highs and one new low;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 56 new highs and 34 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 9.30 billion shares, compared
with the 9.93 billion average over the last 20 trading days.