NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes fell for a second straight day on Tuesday as a spike in coronavirus cases globally hit travel stocks, while Boeing slid on the unexpected departure of its finance chief.

Seven of the 11 S&P indexes were down, with investors piling into defensive stocks that are considered relatively safe during times of economic uncertainty: real estate, utilities, consumer staples and healthcare.

Shares of airline operators and cruiseliners including JetBlue Airways, American Airlines, Norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival Corp, which were hammered last year as widespread lockdowns led to a halt in global travel, fell between 5% and 9%.

At 12:25 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.64%, the S&P 500 was down 0.66% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.91%.

Boeing Co fell 4% after it announced the unexpected retirement of its chief financial officer for the past decade, Greg Smith.

Nike Inc dropped 4.2% and was among the top drags on the blue-chip Dow after Citigroup lowered its rating on the company’s shares to “neutral” from “buy”.