U.S. stock markets plummeted Thursday, as the Dow Jones Industrial average dropped over 3% in mid-morning trading as investors braced for economic fallout from the spread of the coronavirus.
The index has dropped over 11% from its 52-week high that occurred on Feb. 12th.
The Dow is currently off by over 760 points, a loss that rivals the 777 point drop in September of 2001 when Congress failed to pass the $700 billion bank bailout, which is the largest one-day decline in the index’s history.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are also down sharply, 2,38% and 3.25% respectively, in mid-morning trading.
The ten-year Treasury bond hit a new low of 1.25% as investors fled stocks to the safety of bond yields. Stocks for Apple, Disney and Visa have each dropped at least 3% in early day trading. The outbreak of the virus has prompted several companies to issue warning about earnings.
Companies and the markets are reacting to the concern that the coronavirus may not be contained in the short-term. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Wednesday that a U.S. citizen contracted the coronavirus without traveling to a foreign country or being exposed to a person with the virus.
The head of the World Health Organization, Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a news conference in Geneva on Thursday that “this virus has pandemic potential” and that “this is not a time for fear. This is a time for taking action to prevent infection and save lives now.”
