US STOCKS-Wall Street tumbles over 3% on virus fears, travel shares tank

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* Shares of airlines, cruise lines lead declines
* Bank stocks track a fall in U.S. Treasury yields
* Tech firms ask Seattle employees to work from home
* Indexes down: Dow 3.73%, S&P 3.66%, Nasdaq 3.19%

(Updates to mid afternoon)
By Lewis Krauskopf
March 5 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks sold off sharply on
Thursday, with shares of travel companies pummeled, as large
swings in the market continued amid uncertainty over the spread
of the coronavirus and its economic fallout.
The major indexes were down over 3% a day after they tallied
huge gains following moderate Joe Biden's success in the Super
Tuesday primaries for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Declines resumed along with continued volatility as
investors grappled with the ultimate economic impact from the
coronavirus, which has led to more than 3,300 deaths worldwide.
In the latest developments, Alphabet Inc's GOOGL.O Google
joined other big tech firms in recommending employees in the
Seattle area to work from home, while new cases arose around New
York and Los Angeles. “There's no way to put a framework around this, there's no
way to model it, because you just don't know," Carol Schleif,
deputy chief investment officer, at Abbot Downing
in Minneapolis.
"The market is clearly trading on emotion today and not
fundamentals because they can't peg where the fundamentals are,”
Schleif said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 1,010.46
points, or 3.73%, to 26,080.4, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 114.57
points, or 3.66%, to 3,015.55 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC
dropped 288.07 points, or 3.19%, to 8,730.02.
The benchmark S&P 500 was last down over 10% from its Feb.
19 closing high.
The financial sector dropped 5.3% as the continued fall in
Treasury yields weighed on rate-sensitive bank shares, with the
yield on the 10-year Treasury note US10YT=RR falling to 0.92%.
Defensive sectors, such as utilities .SPLRCU and consumer
staples .SPLRCS , were down less than the overall market.
The CBOE Volatility index .VIX , Wall Street's fear gauge,
jumped 8.63 points to 40.62.
Shares of companies in the travel and leisure industry were
punished, with the S&P 500 airline index .SPLRCAIR off 7.1%,
including a 10.3% fall for American Airlines Group Inc AAL.O .
The coronavirus epidemic could rob passenger airlines of up
to $113 billion in revenue this year, an industry body warned.
Shares of cruise operators tumbled after the Grand Princess
ocean liner, owned by Carnival Corp CCL.N , was barred from
returning to its home port of San Francisco on coronavirus fears
after at least 20 people aboard fell ill. Carnival shares
dropped 13.7%, while Royal Caribbean Cruises RCL.N fell 15.5%.
Data showed that the number of Americans filing for
unemployment benefits fell last week, suggesting the labor
market was on solid footing despite the coronavirus outbreak,
with investors casting an eye toward Friday's U.S. employment
report for February. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
6.38-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 4.96-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 8 new 52-week highs and 73 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 25 new highs and 282 new lows.