US STOCKS-The S&P 500 has worst day since October as virus fears mount

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* Intel rises after strong forecast

* Officials confirm second U.S. case of coronavirus

* Investors eye Apple, Facebook, Amazon earnings next week

* Indexes drop: Dow 0.58%, S&P 0.90%, Nasdaq 0.93%

(Updates to market close)

By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Wall Street fell in a broad

sell-off on Friday, as investors fled equities on growing

concerns over the scope of the coronavirus outbreak, capping the

S&P 500's worst week in six months.

All three major U.S. stock averages turned sharply negative,

with the S&P 500 seeing its biggest one-day percentage drop in

over three months after the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention confirmed the second case of the virus on U.S. soil,

this time in Chicago. S&P 500 and Dow wrapped up their worst week since August and

the Nasdaq snapped a six-week winning streak.

Market participants kept a wary eye on developments

surrounding the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization

(WHO) deemed "an emergency in China," having now killed 26

people and infected more than 800 on the eve of the Lunar New

Year holiday. "Markets hate uncertainty and the virus has been enough to

inject uncertainty in the markets," said David Carter, chief

investment officer at Lenox Wealth Advisors in New York.

But some analysts believe the investors were looking for a

reason to take money off the table.

"The virus is really more an excuse to take profits right

now," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist of CFRA

Research in New York.

Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management

in Chicago, agreed. "The markets are expensive and were looking

for a reason to go down, and (the virus) is the excuse to do

it."

Intel Corp's INTC.O stock surged 8.1% after reporting

jumps in data center and cloud computing revenue and forecasting

better-than-expected 2020 earnings. Consumer credit company American Express Co AXP.N

benefited from a robust U.S. retail sales environment, posting a

better-than-expected 9% annual revenue increase. Its stock

advanced 2.8%. Fourth-quarter reporting season is well under way, with 74

companies in the S&P 500 having reported, 68.2% of which have

beaten Wall Street estimates, according to Refinitiv data.

Analysts now expect earnings to have contracted by 0.5%, on

aggregate, in the October to December quarter.

Next week, a swarm of closely watched results are expected,

notably from Apple Inc AAPL.O , McDonald's Corp MCD.N ,

Starbucks Corp SBUX.O , Tesla Inc TSLA.O , Amazon.com Inc

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AMZN.O , Boeing Co BA.N , Facebook Inc FB.O and Caterpillar

Inc CAT.N , among others.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 170.36 points,

or 0.58%, to 28,989.73, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 30.09 points, or

0.90%, to 3,295.45 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped

87.57 points, or 0.93%, to 9,314.91.

Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, all but utilities

.SPLRCU ended the session in the red, with healthcare .SPXHC

and financial .SPSY suffering the largest percentage losses.

Broadcom Inc AVGO.O rose 1.3% after entering an agreement

with Apple Inc AAPL.O for the supply of wireless components

used in its products. Rivals Skyworks Solutions SWKS.O and Qorvo Inc QRVO.O

were down 4.6% and 4.5%, respectively, on the news.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a

2.33-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.94-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 85 new 52-week highs and 5 new lows; the

Nasdaq Composite recorded 115 new highs and 62 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.96 billion shares, compared

with the 7.13 billion average over the last 20 trading days.