Virus fears grip markets again; stocks and bond yields slide
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tocks and bond yields fell sharply Thursday as fears about fallout from the virus outbreak sent more shudders through markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 968 points, or 3.6 percent, wiping out most of its surge of 1,173 points a day earlier.
It's the latest shudder in Wall Street's wildest week in more than eight years.
Treasury yields sank to more record lows as investors plowed money into low-risk investments. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, a benchmark for mortgages, fell to 0.91 percent. Markets have been stuck on an up-and-down roller coaster for weeks because of uncertainty about how much damage the outbreak of the new coronavirus will do to the global economy.
These vicious swings are likely only to continue, as long as the number of new infections continues to accelerate, many analysts and professional investors say. The S&P 500 is on track to move more than 2% a fourth straight day, the first time that would have happened since the summer of 2011.
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The growing understanding that the spread of infections may not slow anytime soon is pulling sharply on markets. That pull has taken turns this week with the increasingly worldwide push that authorities are trying to give markets through spending plans and interest-rate cuts.
“It’s been a roller-coaster market in recent days for equity investors, and today we appear to be on the downward leg for that ride,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “What you need is time, and unfortunately that is still going to result in volatility.”
In China, where the number of new infections has been slowing drastically, Shanghai-traded stocks have rallied nearly 12 percent since hitting a bottom on Feb. 3. They’re just 1.4 percent below their highest level since the new virus began to spread late last year.
Factories in China are gradually reopening, and a return to a sense of normal life may even be on the horizon following swift and severe actions by the government to corral the virus.
But elsewhere in the world, the mood is much darker. There are about 17 times as many new infections outside China as in it, according to the World Health Organization. Widening outbreaks in South Korea, Italy and Iran are responsible for the majority of new infections.
In the U.S., the death toll climbed to 11 due to the virus. California declared a statewide emergency late Wednesday. Southwest Airlines on Thursday warned its investors that it's seen a significant decline in demand in recent days and an increase in customers cancelling trips.
The S&P 500 was down 3.6 percent, shortly after 3 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,009 points, or 3.7 percent, to 26,081, and the Nasdaq was down 3.2 percent.
