US STOCKS-Wall Street skids as virus fears hit tech, travel stocks

(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or type
LIVE/ in a news window.)
* Airlines, casino stocks hit by extended China holidays
* Banks follow U.S. Treasury yields lower
* Crude slips below $60, energy shares down
* Indexes down: Dow 1.38%, S&P 1.36%, Nasdaq 1.69%

(Changes comment, updates prices)
By Sruthi Shankar
Jan 27 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes fell more than
1% on Monday as investors worried about the economic fallout of
a virus outbreak in China that has prompted the country to
extend the Lunar New Year holidays and businesses to close some
operations.
The benchmark S&P 500 was jolted off record highs last week
as China locked down several cities and curbed travel, reminding
investors of the deadly SARS virus that killed nearly 800 people
in 2002-03 and cost the global economy billions.
Travel-related stocks, including airlines, casinos and
hotels, were the worst-hit on Wall Street, while shares of tech
heavyweights that enjoyed a strong rally recently dragged
markets lower.
"There's been an overabundance of bullishness ... The market
is overdue for a correction," said Randy Frederick, vice
president of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab in
Austin, Texas.
"If you've made a pretty good profit since October, it's
probably not a bad move at all to sell."
At 11:58 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
slipped 1.38% to 28,589.26. The S&P 500 .SPX fell 1.36% to
3,250.50 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 1.69% to
9,157.36.
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O , Alphabet Inc
GOOGL.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O dropped between 1.6% and
3%.
Wynn Resorts Ltd WYNN.O , Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd
MLCO.O and Las Vegas Sands Corp LVS.N , which have large
operations in China, slid between 3.7% and 6.9%. The NYSE Arca
Airline index .XAL dropped 3.0%.
The iShares China Large-Cap ETF shed FXI.P 4.3%.
Yum China Holdings Inc YUMC.N slid 4.4% after the company
said it had temporarily closed some of its KFC and Pizza Hut
stores in Wuhan. The death toll from the outbreak in China rose to 81 on
Monday and a small number of cases linked to people who
travelled from Wuhan have been confirmed in more than 10
countries, including Thailand, France, Japan and the United
States. Wall Street's fear gauge, the CBOE Volatility index .VIX
jumped to its highest since Oct. 10.
The rush to safe haven assets sank U.S. Treasury yields to
three-month lows, putting pressure on lenders. The S&P 500 banks
index .SPXBK was down 1.4%. US/
The S&P energy index .SPNY dropped 2.5% as crude price
fell below $60 per barrel on fears of slowing oil demand
following the outbreak. O/R
Defensive sectors such as consumer staples .SPLRCS edged
up, while real estate .SPLRCR and utilities .SPLRCU posted
minimal losses.
Fourth-quarter earnings season will kick into high gear this
week with 141 of the S&P 500 companies expected to report this
week including Apple, Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and Boeing Co
BA.N . No.1 U.S. homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc DHI.N rose 2.5%
after raising the upper end of its forecast for full-year home
sales. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 4.08-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 2.86-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 17 new 52-week highs and 12 new lows,
while the Nasdaq recorded 27 new highs and 82 new lows.