NEW YORK, Feb 28 — Wall Street stocks tumbled in opening trading today, suffering another steep decline as fears of an economic slowdown due to coronavirus again pummeled global markets.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down nearly 700 points, a drop of another 2.7 per cent to 25,068.95. The index already had shed more than 11 per cent this week heading into today’s session.
The broad-based S&P 500 sank 2.6 per cent to 2,901.71, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index plunged 2.4 per cent to 8,361.71.
US stocks are poised to conclude their worst week since 2008, reflecting diminishing expectations for the global economy due to the Covid-19 epidemic in China and the spread of the illness to other countries.
The number of new coronavirus cases in the world rose to 83,853, including 2,873 deaths, across 56 countries and territories, according to a report gathered by AFP from official sources.
The flight to safety driving the continued weakness in global equity markets “is a reflection of concerns about the spread of the coronavirus and its capacity to severely hurt economic growth and earnings growth prospects, particularly if the spread ramps up in the US and Europe,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.
“It is becoming clear that this year’s high earnings growth expectations are unlikely to be met, so stretched valuations ... are being reined in and speculative excess is being wrung out of stock prices.” — AFP
