NEW YORK (AP) — Fear bludgeoned financial markets around the world Monday, and stocks, bond yields and oil plunged on metastasizing worries about the effects of the new coronavirus.
The most violent drops came from the oil markets, where prices cratered more than 20%. But moves in stocks and bond yields were nearly as breathtaking. In the United States, the S&P 500 plunged as much as 7.4% in the first few minutes of trading, and losses were so sharp that trading was temporarily halted. Stocks trimmed their losses following the halt, and the index was down 5.5%, as of 10:25 a.m. Eastern time.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,442 points, or 5.5% to 24,434after briefly being down more than 2,000. The Nasdaq gave up 5.3%.
