NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd February, 2020) From the choicest conglomerates to darling tech shares, stocks on Wall Street slumped to snap a two-week rise as the global contagion from the coronavirus grew.
Wall Street's broadest stock index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 0.8 percent to finish at 28,992 on Friday.
The S&P 500 index, which reflects the performance of the top 500 US stocks, closed down 1.1 percent at 3,338.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite index slumped 1.7 percent to 9,577.
All three indexes had posted two weeks of back-to-back gains prior to this.
Beijing, which already had a death toll of more than 2,000 and over 45,000 infections from the coronavirus, reported 118 new deaths and 1,109 new cases on Friday. South Korea reported 100 new infections, doubling its cases. In Japan, more than 80 people tested positive for the virus.
Factory activity in Japan also registered its steepest contraction in seven years in February, hurt by fallout from the outbreak.
