Health care companies led a broad slide in U.S. stocks Friday as increased fears over the spread of a deadly outbreak of coronavirus rattled markets.
The S&P 500 had its worst day since early October and snapped a two-week winning streak.
The S&P 500 index fell 30.07 points, or 0.9%, to 3,295.47. The index had been down as much as 1.3% earlier in the day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 170.36 points, or 0.6%, to 28,989.73. It briefly slid more than 316 points.
The Nasdaq composite lost 87.57 points, or 0.9%, to 9,314.91. The Russell 2000 index of stocks in smaller companies slumped 22.78 points, or 1.4%, to 1,662.23.
The sell-off followed news that a Chicago woman has become the second U.S. patient diagnosed with the new virus from China. Health authorities worldwide have been taking measures to try to contain and monitor the coronavirus outbreak.
"It really is a reaction to the widening nature of what's going on with the coronavirus," said Lisa Erickson, head of traditional investments at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. "People are concerned about, ultimately, the impact on Chinese growth and perhaps global growth."
The stock market has been mostly racking up gains going back to last fall. Before this week, the S&P 500 had posted a weekly decline only three times since October. Even with this week's decline of 1%, the benchmark index is still up 2% for the month.
Jitters over the potential economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak intensified Friday as the tally of confirmed cases continued to climb.
The virus can cause pneumonia and other severe respiratory symptoms.
Shares in airlines and several other companies in the travel and tourism industries fell Friday. United Airlines slid 3.5% and American Airlines dropped 4%. Cruise line operator Carnival fell 3.9%.
Drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb was among the biggest decliners in the health care sector, shedding 4%. Health insurers also fell. UnitedHealth Group dropped 2.2% and Amgen lost 4%.
Banks and other financial sector companies also took heavy losses, with credit-card issuers among the biggest losers.
The price of U.S. crude oil fell 2.5%, dragging down energy stocks. Hess lost 3.2%.
Utilities notched a slight gain as investors shifted money into safe-play, high-dividend stocks and U.S. government bonds. The surge in bond-buying sent yields lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.69% from 1.74% late Thursday, a big move.
Investors continued to dig through the latest batch of company earnings reports Friday.
Intel surged 8.1% after the chipmaker blew past Wall Street's fourth quarter profit forecasts. The company cited demand for cloud-computing as the key reason for the solid financial results. It also gave investors an upbeat forecast for the first quarter, which helped inject some confidence into the broader market for chips.
American Express rose 2.8% after the credit-card issuer and global payments company beat Wall Street's fourth quarter profit forecasts.
Shares in two credit-card issuers fell sharply after the companies released mixed quarterly snapshots. Discover Financial Services slumped 11.1% after it issued disappointing 2020 guidance. Synchrony Financial skidded 9.9% after its fourth quarter revenue fell short of analysts' forecasts.
Next week is shaping up as the busiest week for earnings reports, with roughly 40% of the companies in the S&P 500 due to issue their results for the last three months of 2019.
So far, about 16% of S&P 500 companies have reported their quarterly results. Early indications have been encouraging, with 72.8% of those companies topping analysts' forecasts for profits, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Even so, the outlook for 2020 earnings isn't improving as many investors expected, said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA.
Benchmark crude oil fell $1.40 to settle at $54.19 a barrel. Brent crude oil, the international standard, dropped $1.35 to close at $60.69 a barrel.
Wholesale gasoline fell 4 cents to $1.52 per gallon. Heating oil declined 6 cents to $1.73 per gallon. Natural gas fell 4 cents to $1.89 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Information for this article was contributed by Damian J. Troise of The Associated Press.
Business on 01/25/2020