Stocks fell sharply on Monday as fears about the worsening coronavirus as well as uncertainty on further fiscal stimulus rattled traders.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 900 points in the morning trading session, or 3.3 percent. The S&P 500 lost 2.6 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.3 percent. The major stock averages were all coming off their third consecutive losing week, the market’s longest weekly slide since 2019.
These declines added to what has been a downbeat month on Wall Street. The S&P 500 is down more than 7 percent in September and the Dow has lost 6 percent. The Nasdaq has tumbled 10.3 percent month to date and has re-entered correction territory. The S&P, meanwhile, fell back towards the flatline for 2020.
“It seems like the biggest reason for the decline in most global stock markets is the concern that tighter virus restrictions in Europe will result from the new spike in Covid cases now that the colder weather is upon us,” Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak, said in a note on Monday.
The U.K. is reportedly considering another national lockdown to stop an increase in coronavirus cases. The country’s benchmark FTSE 100 dropped more than 3 percent on the fear. Stocks that would be hit hardest from another lockdown declined on Wall Street, with shares of Carnival Corp. down by 4 percent Monday morning. Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines fell 4.6 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively.
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