U.S. stocks tumbled as volatility sparked by the spread of the coronavirus woes continued to grip financial markets. Treasury yields sank to record lows and haven assets surged.
The S&P 500 fell more than 3%, erasing the majority of Wednesday's steep gains, as wild swings piled up. The benchmark has had the most volatile week since S&P Global Ratings cut the U.S. debt rating in 2011. Banks and tech shares led losses.
Investor confidence has been shaken as cases of the virus continue to multiply across the world's largest economy despite efforts by authorities to contain the outbreak. The 10-year yield sank to as low as 0.90%, while the dollar plunged against the yen. Gold climbed and oil slid.
"It's definitely volatile. Once things get to this point, it normally takes a few weeks for things to settle down," Michael Shaoul, chief executive officer at Marketfield Asset Management LLC, told Bloomberg TV. "All we know now is that we don't really understand what's going to happen next. It's probably four, six, eight weeks before we're going to have any useful information as to what the trajectory of the virus is or what the actual economic fallout looks like."
