US STOCKS-Wall St falls as pandemic hurts consumer confidence and earnings; stimulus plan underwhelms

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* Stimulus hungry investors worry about Washington battle
* Earnings loom large in busy week
* McDonald's, 3M fall on weak results, Pfizer up after
forecast
* Indexes down: Dow 0.77%, S&P 0.65%, Nasdaq 1.27%

(Updates prices, adds volume)
By Sinéad Carew
July 28 (Reuters) - Wall Street closed lower on Tuesday as
investors fretted about weakening consumer confidence,
disappointing financial results and as investors worried about
wrangling in the U.S. Congress over a coronavirus aid plan.
Weighing heavily on the Dow were industrial conglomerate 3M
Co MMM.N , down 4.8%, after it reported a second-quarter plunge
in demand across its businesses and McDonald's Corp MCD.N ,
which fell 2.5%, after a surprisingly big drop in global
same-store sales. Data released in the morning showed U.S. consumer confidence
ebbed in July as coronavirus infections flared up across the
country. As they waited on a stimulus package agreement and for
quarterly reports in one of the busiest weeks in earnings
season, investors were also anticipating the U.S. Federal
Reserve's Wednesday wrap-up of its two day policy meeting.
"It's probably not a bad place to take some profits and
rebuild some liquidity because any of those three events could
lead to volatility," said Sameer Samana, Senior Global Market
Strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute in St. Louis.
Samana said "its going to be very hard for the Fed to
surprise on the positive side."
Meanwhile, Florida reported a record one-day rise in
coronavirus deaths, and cases in Texas passed the 400,000 mark,
stoking fears the United States was losing control of the
outbreak. Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney
Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia, called the consumer survey
"unsettling" evidence that "individuals are increasingly
concerned about the recent surge in coronavirus impacting their
finances and their mobility."
Feeding the fears, members of congress were sparring over a
$1 trillion aid proposal from Senate Republicans announced on
Monday, four days before millions of Americans lose unemployment
benefits. "There has to be tremendous compromise from both parties to
get to some agreement," Luschini said, noting a congressional
recess scheduled for August adds deadline pressure.
"It's particularly critical at this time since the market is
really feeding off the largess that's been expended by fiscal
and monetary authorities," he said.
The indexes lost further ground late in the session after
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said no coronavirus
bill would be brought to the senate floor without legal
liability protections for corporations, a measure opposed by the
Democratic majority in the House of Representatives W1N2CF03A
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 205.49 points,
or 0.77%, to 26,379.28, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 20.97 points, or
0.65%, to 3,218.44 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
134.18 points, or 1.27%, to 10,402.09.
Materials .SPLRCM , energy .SPNY and consumer
discretionary .SPLRCD were the biggest percentage decliners of
the S&P's 11 major sectors. Defensive real estate .SPLRCR ,
utilities .SPLRCU and consumer staples .SPLRCS sectors were
the only gainers.
Another focus this week is results from Wall Street's
trillion-dollar market value companies - Apple Inc AAPL.O ,
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O and Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O - as well as
Facebook Inc FB.O .
Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far
this quarter, about 80% surpassed significantly lowered profit
forecasts, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Pfizer Inc PFE.N shares rose 3.9% after it raised its
full-year forecast a day after it announced a pivotal global
study to evaluate a COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.25-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.97-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 25 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 56 new highs and 22 new lows.
On U.S. exchanges 9.28 billion shares changed hands compared
with the 10.56 billion average for the last 20 sessions.