Stock markets worldwide plummeted after the number of coronavirus cases rose sharply in Italy and South Korea over the weekend.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.93%, the S&P 500 was down 2.75%, and the Nasdaq composite was off by 3.49% in mid-morning trading Monday.
Elsewhere in the world, South Korea’s KOSPI closed down nearly 4%. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom’s Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index was down 3.56%, and Germany’s DAX was down 4% in mid-afternoon trading.
The decline in the markets is being blamed on a growing number of companies projecting that the coronavirus will interfere with their abilities to meet sales and profit goals for the first quarter. The increase in the number of cases in Italy and South Korea also raised fears that the virus could become a pandemic, as the World Health Organization on Monday warned that the world is not prepared for a global outbreak of the virus.
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