US STOCKS-Wall Street slips as stimulus uncertainty drags on

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* Pelosi sets Tuesday deadline for COVID-19 aid deal
* Halliburton posts fourth straight quarterly loss
* IBM set to report results after market close
* Indexes down: Dow 0.7%, S&P 0.85%, Nasdaq 0.74%

(Updates prices to late afternoon, adds commentary, NEW YORK
dateline, changes byline,)
By Sinéad Carew
NEW YORK, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes
slipped on Monday as investors worried that they might not see a
coronavirus economic stimulus deal before the Nov. 3
presidential election.
While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that she was
optimistic legislation could be pushed through before the
election, but that an agreement would have to come by Tuesday
for that to happen. "People are coming around to the idea that it's a really
short time frame and it's probably not going to happen before
the election," said Shawn Snyder, head of investment strategy at
Citi's personal wealth management business.
While the majority of investors think there will be a
COVID-19 relief bill according to Snyder, they don't know when
it will happen and "would like clarity on it as soon as they can
get it," said the strategist.
A spokesperson told Fox on Monday that the White House was
"cautiously optimistic" that Pelosi was moving toward making a
deal. But this was after last week when the White House proposed a
$1.8 trillion stimulus package that Pelosi rejected because it
fell short and stuck to her demand for $2.2 trillion in aid.
At 2:09PM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell
199.23 points, or 0.7%, to 28,407.08, the S&P 500 .SPX lost
29.66 points, or 0.85%, to 3,454.15 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 86.68 points, or 0.74%, to 11,584.88.
Wall Street's fear gauge .VIX was rising for a sixth
straight session as election campaigns kicked into high gear,
with early voting starting in Florida, a battleground state that
could decide the presidential election.
President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe
Biden will debate for a final time on Thursday.
All 11 major S&P industry sectors were trading lower, with
health care .SPXHC and communication services index .SPLRCL
leading the percentage declines, dipping more than 1%.
Amazon.com AMZN.O , Facebook Inc FB.O and Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O were all down more than 1% and creating the biggest
drags on the S&P 500.
"It's just the general volatility here. I wouldn't be
surprised to see this bouncing around all day," said Tony
Bedikian, head of global markets at Citizens Bank.
The Dow Jones Transport Average .DJT reversed course after
making gains earlier on Monday with airlines such as United
Airlines UAL.N advancing after the U.S. Transportation
Security Administration's (TSA) said it screened more than 1
million airline passengers on Sunday for the first time since
mid-March. Video-streaming service Netflix Inc NFLX.O was up around
1% ahead of its results on Tuesday. After the financial sector set a mixed tone to the start of
the third-quarter earnings season, investors will look to
results from about 91 S&P 500 companies this week, including
International Business Machines Corp IBM.N , whose quarterly
report is expected later in the day.
Oilfield services provider Halliburton Co HAL.N posted a
fourth consecutive quarterly loss as this year's slump in oil
prices due to the COVID-19 pandemic hit demand for its services.
Its shares, however, rose 0.2%. ConocoPhillips COP.N slipped 1.3% as it agreed to buy U.S.
shale oil producer Concho Resources Inc CXO.N for $9.7 billion
as the energy sector continued to consolidate. Concho fell 0.9%.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.49-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.21-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 25 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 98 new highs and 24 new lows.