US markets end lower amid lingering coronavirus concerns

19 Mar 2020 Evaluate

The US markets ended lower on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing below the psychologically important 20,000 level for the first time since February 2017, as investors continued to dump equities and other assets on worries over the economic impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Trading was briefly suspended after a circuit breaker was tripped up. A circuit breaker halts trading across the US stock exchanges for 15 minutes and is meant to ensure orderly market behavior. Wednesday marked the fourth time in a week that a circuit breaker was triggered. Meanwhile, the number of confirmed US coronavirus cases has jumped to more than 6,400, while the death count has broken above 100.

Substantial weakness was visible among housing stocks, as reflected by the 12.6 percent nosedive by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. Energy, steel, semiconductor and banking stocks also saw considerable weakness on the day, moving sharply lower along with the other major sectors. Further, Gold stocks showed a substantial move to the downside on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 13.6 percent. The sell-off by gold stocks came amid a steep drop by the price of the precious metal, as gold for April delivery plunged $47.90 to $1,477.90 an ounce.  However, markets came off their lows in the final minutes of trading after the Senate obtained the votes to pass a coronavirus relief plan to expand paid leave.

Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,338.46 points or 6.3 percent to 19,898.92, Nasdaq fell 344.94 points or 4.7 percent to 6,989.84 and S&P 500 was down by 131.09 points or 5.18 percent to 2,398.1.

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