It was another big down day across the board triggered by more jitters over Q1 optimism. This time investors are taking a jaundiced eye toward last week’s stellar bank reports and suspecting that the earnings have been exaggerated so Q1 may not be going nearly so well after all.  Or could it be that with the huge spikes in COVID worldwide that panic selling ensued with the transportation and travel sectors taking a big COVID hit? Or could it be with everything go so well that we’re still seeing more profit-taking? At any rate, today saw an exodus into defensive stocks (utilities, consumer staples, real estate and healthcare) and out of financials and energy. The bottom line is, as today’s expert put it, that despite all the vaccination progress and recovery hopes, “We’re not out of the woods yet.” Despite all this, the Q1 earnings forecast has been raised once again, today at 31.5% vs yesterday’s 30% vs last week’s 25%.  Volume was considerably up and, at 10.2 billion, much closer to the 4-week average. 

Tue  April 20, 2021  6:09 PM EDT

Wall Street closes lower as virus spike hits travel stocks

Shivani KumaresanMedha SinghHerbert Lash

DJ: 34,077.63  -123.04        NAS: 13,914.77  -137.58        S&P: 4,163.26  -22.21      4/19

DJ: 33,821.30  -256.33        NAS: 13,786.27  -128.50        S&P: 4,134.94  -28.32      4/20

Stocks on Wall Street fell for a second straight day on Tuesday as a global spike in coronavirus cases hit travel-related shares and investors had second thoughts about big U.S. banks' apparently stellar earnings last week.  Kansas City Southern (KSU.N) surged 15.2% on the prospect of a bidding war after Canadian National (CNR.TO) offered about $30 billion for the U.S. railroad, some $5 billion more than an earlier offer from Canadian Pacific (CP.TO). read more  Boeing Co (BA.N) slid 4.1% on the unexpected departure of its finance chief, the latest shock to hit the planemaker as it fights to recover from the pandemic and 737 MAX crisis. read more

Investors piled into defensive sectors considered relatively safe during times of economic uncertainty, lifting real estate (.SPLRCR), utilities (.SPLRCU), consumer staples (.SPLRCS) and healthcare (.SPXHC) as financials and energy shares fell hard.   Shares of airline operators and cruiseliners including JetBlue Airways (JBLU.O), American Airlines (AAL.O), Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH.N)and Carnival Corp (CCL.N) , which were hammered last year during lockdowns but have climbed recently on the reopening hopes, fell more than 4%.  Some of the recent optimism about the leisure industry has waned as the reopening might take a bit longer than initially thought, said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.

"We're not out of the woods yet when it comes to the COVID virus and getting to where global economies are reopening," he said. "Some of that enthusiasm has diminished."  A leading epidemiologist at the World Health Organization said on Monday the latest rise in COVID-19 infections worldwide reflected increases among all age groups. read more  Wall Street scaled record highs last week as investors bet on stocks such as industrials and miners that are seen as benefiting from the economic rebound, while highly valued technology stocks regained favor after a retreat in bond yields.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 0.75% to 33,821.3. The S&P 500 (.SPX) shed 0.68% to 4,134.94 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 0.92% to 13,786.27.  It was the first back-to-back declines for the S&P since the end of March.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.21 billion shares, compared with the 10.59 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.  The CBOE volatility index (.VIX), known as Wall Street's fear gauge, climbed above 19 points for the first time since March 31, before closing at 18.71.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), Citigroup Inc (C.N) and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) led financials lower as analysts reassessed their earnings reports, said Dick Bove, senior research analyst at Odeon Capital Group.  Accounting changes on how to report loan reserves skewered numbers when compared to a year ago, he said.  "People made the assumption this was a gangbusters quarter for the banking industry when that's far from the truth," Bove said, adding second-half profits are expected to be very strong.

United Airlines Holdings Inc was the largest decliner, falling 8.5%, on the S&P 500 after reporting a bigger-than-expected adjusted net loss to push the S&P 1500 airline index (.SPCOMAIR) down 4.6%. read more  Shares of video-streaming service provider Netflix Inc (NFLX.O), which thrived during last year's lockdowns, fell 0.9% ahead of its results due after the closing bell.  Netflix tumbled about 10% in after-hours trade following news that the company added fewer-than-expected paid subscribers in the first quarter, weighed down by a lighter content slate in the first half of 2021 due to COVID-19 production delays. read more  International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) rose 3.8% after recording the biggest increase in quarterly sales in more than two years. read more

Analysts expect first-quarter earnings from S&P 500 firms to jump 31.5% from a year earlier, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.71-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.18-to-1 ratio favored decliners.  The S&P 500 posted 61 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 47 new highs and 116 new lows.