Stocks are bleeding once again on Thursday as markets have now entered correction territory, down more than 10% from all-time highs.
The coronavirus has now spread to nearly every continent and is quickly headed towards a pandemic according to the World Health Organization, which is spreading fear in investors, who are dumping stocks in droves.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tanked nearly 1000 points overnight and early in Thursday trading, a feat that seems to quickly becoming commonplace these days. The S&P 500 plummeted more than 3% to trade just above the 3000 level, after reaching nearly 3400 less than a week ago. Meanwhile the Nasdaq Composite collapsed 4%. The Dow is on pace for its worst weekly performance since the 2008 financial crisis, falling more than 9% week to date. All three indices are attempting to recover some of the worst losses as of noon EST, however.
Volatility has climbed to levels on par with the December 2018 decline, as stocks are struggling to stabilize after being spooked by the rapid spread of the coronavirus, and concerns from the World Health Organization that the contagion is likely to soon become pandemic.
“We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare for the expectation that this could be bad,” a top CDC officials told reporters in a conference call outlining what schools and businesses will likely need to do if the COVID-19 virus starts to spread throughout the U.S.
The CDC confirmed on Wednesday that the coronovirus may have the ability to spread without direct contact in China, as the first U.S. coronavirus case of unknown origin was discovered in Northern California, indicating possible “community spread” of the disease. The CDC doesn’t understand quite how the patient, a California resident, contracted the virus, further striking fear into the public and investors’ minds.
“We’re extremely cautious in the short term,” said Tom Hainlin, global investment strategist at Ascent Private Capital Management. “No one really seems to be an expert on the coronavirus. We haven’t seen anything like this really in our investing lifetimes.”
Still, plummeting markets can provide opportunities to make money. For savvy investors with an appetite for risk, the Direxion Daily S&P 500 High Beta Bear 3X Shares (NYSEArca: HIBS) and the Direxion Daily Dow Jones Internet Bear 3X Shares (NYSEArca: WEBS) are just two of the many inverse ETFs that can be used to capitalize on falling markets.
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