U.S. stocks fell in midday trading Tuesday, a day after the market's biggest drop in two years, as traders worry that the spreading coronavirus will threaten global economic growth.
More companies warned that the outbreak will hurt their finances, including United Airlines and Mastercard. Meanwhile, new cases are being reported in Europe and the Middle East, far outside the epicenter of China. The latest cases have raised fears that the virus could spread further.
The decline on Monday sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 1,000 points lower and wiped out its gains for the year. The S&P 500 is now down 5.8 percent from its record high set last Wednesday.
Technology stocks, which rely heavily on China for both sales and supply chains, once again led the decline. Apple shed 1.7 percent and chipmaker Nvidia slumped 4.9 percent.
Bond prices continued rising. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.32 percent from 1.37 percent.
The lower bond yields weighed on banks. JPMorgan Chase shed 1.9 percent and Bank of America fell 2.3 percent.
Energy companies fell as crude oil prices edged lower.
Real estate companies and utilities held up better than the rest of the market as investors pushed money into safe-play stocks.
KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 index fell 1 percent as of 11:40 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 280 points, or 1 percent, to 27,673. The Nasdaq fell 1 percent. The Russell 200 index of smaller-company stocks fell 1.6 percent.
VIRUS UPDATE: The viral outbreak that originated in China has now infected more than 80,000 people globally, with more cases being reported in Europe and the Middle East. The majority of cases and deaths remain centered in China, but the rapid spread to other parts of the world has spooked markets and raised fears that it will hurt the global economy.
United Airlines fell 3.7 percent after withdrawing its financial forecasts for the year because of the impact on demand for air travel. Mastercard slipped 4.2 percent after saying the impact on cross-border travel and business could cut into its revenue, depending on the duration and severity of the virus outbreak.
STOCK BOOSTER: Moderna surged 13 percent after the company sent its potential virus vaccine to government researchers for additional testing. The biotechnology company is one of several drug developers racing to develop a vaccine.
NAILED IT: Home Depot rose 2.1 percent after the home-improvement retailer’s fourth-quarter financial results connected with Wall Street. The company handily beat profit expectations and reported a surprisingly good jump for a key sales measure. It gave investors a strong profit forecast for 2020 and raised its dividend.
GOOD KARMA: Intuit rose 3.2 percent after the maker of TurboTax software said it will pay $7.1 billion for consumer finance company Credit Karma. The deal will give one of the most well-known makers of personal finance software a website operator that focuses on helping people monitor their credit and find loans or credit cards.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
