U.S. stocks took a hard hit today, along with other global stock markets, as coronavirus fears have fully taken over investors. Panic has begun to strike market participants as the number of new virus cases outside of China surged over the weekend, especially in countries like Italy, South Korean and Iran.
The Dow Jones lost all of its 2020 gains Monday in a drop that Wall Street has not experienced in two years, with the S&P 500 also match the Dow's loss. Online brokers Fidelity and Charles Schwab (SCHW ) have both announced that they experienced technical difficulties amid the Dow's dramatic fall, mainly having to do with the higher volume of clients prompting delays. The recent volatility has put a halt on travel and leisure stocks as well as tech and chipmakers.
Here's how the market closed on Monday:
S&P 500 Index (SPY ): -3.35% or -111.86 points to 3,225.89
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA ): -3.56% or -1,031.40 points to 27,961.01
Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ ): -3.71% or -355.31 points to 9,221.28
In Major Stock News, Apple (AAPL ) and Nike (NKE ) were both down more than 4% from growing virus fears affecting global revenue. Shares of Nvidia (NVDA ) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD ) declined over 5% as investors fear the worst for global growth. Semiconductors (SMH ) have a lot to lose from problems in the global supply chain, especially with a slowdown from iPhone production in China. Major casino stocks--Las Vegas Sands (LVS ), Wynn Resorts (WYNN ), MGM Resorts (MGM )---all plunged on Monday, dropping all of their 2020 performances even lower. Being one of the only winners on this gloomy trading day, Zoom Video Communications (ZM ) increased more than 6% to a new record midday highs as the software company was seen as a beneficiaries from the growing epidemic.
In Stock Sector News, Monday was pretty grim in terms of growth will every sector dropping at least -1%. The declines were as follows: Energy -4.74%, Information Technology -4.19%, Consumer Discretionary -3.53%, Communication Services -3.32%, Financials -3.27%, Health Care -3.26%, Industrials -2.98%, Materials -2.86%, Consumer Staples -2.48%, Real Estate -1.34% and Utilities -1.16%.
Lastly, in Commodity and Currency News, crude oil prices took another sharp plunge on Monday, with the West Texas Intermediate (USO ) tanking -4.19% and Brent Crude (BNO ) slipping almost -4%. Gold (GLD ) prices soared +1.06% amid the trading chaos as investors move towards lower their risks. Finally, the U.S. Dollar (UUP ) was not spared from the market decline, with the DXY Index lowering almost -0.15%.
