U.S. stocks continue to fall on Friday as markets are in extreme panic due to the coronavirus outbreak, and 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.
Corporations seem affected by the panic as well, taking steps to curtail the infection from hurting its staff members.
Goldman Sachs is requesting attendees for a conference scheduled to be held by the investment bank next week in New York to stay home from the event if they’ve recently traveled to countries hardest hit by the coronavirus.
“In light of the recent outbreak of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, Goldman Sachs has enacted several precautionary measures to ensure the well being of our clients and our people,” the bank said.
Facebook also has opted to take measure to protect its employees, stating, “In light of the growing concerns around COVID-19, we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel the in-person component of F8 this year, in order to prioritize the health and safety of our developer partners, employees and everyone who helps put F8 on. We plan to replace the in-person F8 event with locally hosted events, videos and live-streamed content.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tanked nearly 1000 points overnight and is closing well below the lows, a feat that seems to quickly becoming commonplace these days. The S&P 500 plummeted roughly 5% to trade just reach the 2950 level, after climbing to nearly 3400 less than a week ago. Meanwhile the Nasdaq Composite collapsed over 4%. The Dow is on pace for its worst weekly performance since the 2008 financial crisis, falling almost 10% week to date. All three indices are in free-fall into the close, with the S&P 500 down more than 140 points and dropping fiercely.
It took the indices just 10 sessions to dive from their all-time highs, after notching record highs last week.