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* Wall Street's three major averages confirm corrections
* U.S. stocks eye steepest weekly fall since 2008
* New infections increase outside China
* Microsoft warns of hit to PC business from outbreak
* GS sees no earnings growth for U.S. companies in 2020
* Indexes down: Dow 4.42%, S&P 4.42%, Nasdaq 4.6%
(Updates to close, adds comment)
By Sinéad Carew
New York, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes
plunged on Thursday for the sixth straight session, with the S&P
500 confirming its fastest correction in history as the rapid
global spread of coronavirus intensified worries about economic
growth.
The S&P 500 .SPX finished 12% below its Feb. 19 record
close, marking its fastest correction ever in just six trading
days. The previous record was nine days in early 2018, according
to S&P Dow Jones Indices analyst Howard Silverblatt.
The Dow registered a record one-day points drop, which was
also its fourth 1,000-point decline in history and the second
this week.
All three major U.S. indexes were also on track for their
steepest weekly pullback since the global financial crisis, as
new infections reported around the world surpassed those in
mainland China. Governments battling the epidemic from Iran to Australia
shut schools, canceled big events and stocked up on medical
supplies. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention late Wednesday confirmed an infection of unknown
origin in California. While selling eased for a while during the session the S&P's
losses deepened rapidly in the last hour of trading to end at a
session low, registering its biggest one-day percentage loss
since August 18 2011.
"The path of this scourge is unknown, therefore you can't
know the economic impact. You can roll the dice but it's a
guess," said Brian Battle, director of trading at Performance
Trust Capital Partners in Chicago.
But Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at
OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois, urged some caution.
"People have gone from saying this is a non-event to saying
this is the end of the world. There's room for a middle ground,"
said Jankovskis, who suggested opting for defensive bets.
"The virus will spread somewhat but it doesn't mean that
it'll make the entire world grind to a halt," he said.
The CBOE volatility index .VIX , also known as the fear
index, ended near its session high, up 11.60 points at 39.16,
its highest level since February 2018.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 1,190.95
points, or 4.42%, to 25,766.64, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 137.63
points, or 4.42%, to 2,978.76 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC
dropped 414.30 points, or 4.61%, to 8,566.48.
The Dow ended 12.8% below its Feb. 12 record close and
Nasdaq closed 12.7% under its Feb. 19 closing peak.
All of the 11 S&P sectors closed lower with real estate
.SPLRCR , technology .SPLRCT and energy .SPNY sectors all
losing more than 5%. The best performers were the healthcare
.SPXHC and industrials .SPLRCI sectors, which all closed
down more than 3%.
The NYSE Arca Airline index .XAL ended down 5.7% on fears
about travel disruptions around the world, while the
Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index .SOX , which includes
China-exposed stocks, fell 4.7%.
Industry analysts and economists continued to sound the
alarm as they assessed the fallout of the outbreak, with Goldman
Sachs saying U.S. firms will generate no earnings growth in
2020. Microsoft Corp MSFT.O , the biggest drag on the S&P,
dropped almost 7% after it warned of weakness in PC business due
to a hit to its supply chain from the coronavirus, echoing
similar statements from Apple Inc AAPL.O and HP HPQ.N .
While it was the biggest boost for the S&P, 3M Co MMM.N
pared gains sharply as the day wore on, ending up just 0.8% at
$150.16 after rising as high as $155.43. An analyst had upgraded
the stock, citing possible benefit from higher sales of
respirator masks during the outbreak.
In the busiest trading session at least since July 2014,
according to data from Refinitiv, 15.63 billion shares changed
hands on U.S. exchanges on Thursday compared with the average
8.67 billion for the last 20 sessions.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
7.51-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 5.87-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted four new 52-week highs and 102 new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 24 new highs and 489 new lows.