US STOCKS-Wall Street sinks as coronavirus anxiety grows

(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or type
LIVE/ in a news window)
* S&P 500, Dow coming off worst first quarter ever
* Officials project jump in U.S. coronavirus deaths
* U.S. private payrolls post first drop in 2-1/2 years
* All 11 major S&P 500 sectors in the red
* Indexes slide: Dow 3.00%, S&P 3.20%, Nasdaq 2.77%

(Updates to open)
By Uday Sampath Kumar and Medha Singh
April 1 (Reuters) - The Dow Jones tumbled more than 700
points on Wednesday as investors fled to safe-haven assets after
new orders for U.S.-made goods plunged to an 11-year low and
private payrolls fell for the first time since 2017.
The blue-chip Dow and the S&P 500 ended Tuesday with their
worst opening quarters in history as efforts to contain the
virus resulted in deserted shopping streets, massive staff
furloughs and a halt in business activity.
Meanwhile, the collapse in oil prices brought about its
first major casualty with Whiting Petroleum WLL.N filing for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Its shares slumped 42%.
"There is no easy way to quantify either the economic
shutdown or what the eventual recovery is going to look like as
the monetary and fiscal policy initiatives are as historic as
the economic decline," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist
at National Securities in New York.
Companies on the benchmark index have lost more than $5.6
trillion in market value so far this year, despite trillions of
dollars in fiscal and monetary stimulus that helped equity
markets claw back some of the sharp declines last week.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Americans of
a "painful" two weeks ahead, with White House health officials
modeling an enormous jump in virus-related deaths even with
strict social distancing measures. U.S. real estate .SPLRCR , utilties .SPLRCU and consumer
staples .SPLRCS stocks, which had held up so far as they are
considered stable during times of extreme volatility, fell
between 1% and 6.7%.
Goldman Sachs now expects sequential real U.S. GDP to
plummet 34% in the second quarter on an annualized basis,
foreshadowing a deep economic slump. "Talk of a bottom in equity markets still seems remarkably
premature given the continued increase in infection and death
rates across Europe and the United States," said Michael Hewson,
chief market analyst at CMC Markets in London.
With the quarterly reporting season set to begin in two
weeks, S&P 500 companies are expected to enter an earnings
recession in 2020, falling 3.7% in the first quarter and 9.6% in
the second.
At 9:56 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
down 658.21 points, or 3.00%, at 21,258.95, the S&P 500 .SPX
was down 82.63 points, or 3.20%, at 2,501.96 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 213.20 points, or 2.77%, at 7,486.90.
Interest-rate sensitive stocks on the banking index .SPXBK
fell 5%, while airlines, hotels and cruise operators shed
between 5% and 7%.
The energy sector .SPNY shed another 3%, with experts now
saying oil prices could touch single digits, exacerbated by a
share tussle among top producers as the world runs out of
storage space. Declining issues outnumbered advancers more than 13-to-1 on
the NYSE and 6-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded no new 52-week high and seven new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded four new highs and 32 new lows.