It's official. The U.S. stock market has ended its trading week with its worst one-week decline since the 2008 financial crisis that still sends shivers down many people's spines. The Dow Jones plummeted another 357 points, bring its total loss for the week to more than 3,500. The Dow and S&P 500 are now resting in correction territory, with their losses recorded at 14% and 12% respectfully.
Capital Economics had a bleak perspective concerning the current market decline and the coronavirus, writing:
"A key risk to economic activity is people avoiding public places like restaurants and cinema, and these sectors make up a bigger share of global activity than a few decades ago. The structural changes in the global economy therefor make it more vulnerable to flu pandemics than in the past, underling our view the economic effects of a severe pandemic could be as bad as those of the global financial crisis."
Nevertheless, all three U.S. market averages had nominal rallies on Friday, with the Dow shaving off its over 1,000 point drop it had in earlier trading hours. The Nasdaq even ended on the positive side, though its performance from Thursday is mostly flat. It's a good time to remember that most market corrections in the past have been resolved with a bull rally in an average of four months.
Here's how far the market plunged on Friday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -0.83% or -24.62 points to 2,954.14
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -1.39% or -357.28 points to 25,409.36
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +0.01% or +0.89 points to 8,567.37
In Major Stock News, seven stocks on the Dow ended Friday in positive territory, though they are still posting negative growth for the week. They were Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW), Nike (NYSE: NKE), Visa (NYSE: V), Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) and UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH). Cruise stocks stopped their decline on Friday with Norwegian Cruise Lines (NYSE: NCLH), Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL), and Carnival (NYSE: CCL) raising, although all are still down for the week. Shares of Big Lots (NYSE: BIG) sunk almost 30% Friday after the retailer reported a quarterly earnings loss. Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND) also took a large hit of over 15% after the meat alternative posted a surprise quarterly earnings loss.
In Stock Sector News, it was another negative day for most sectors, but a few ended trading on Friday with positive performance gains. The few that ended in the green include Energy +1.25%, Information Technology +0.79% and Communication Services +0.22%. The rest that continued to decline include Utilities -3.32%, Financials -2.57%, Real Estate -2.53%, Consumer Staples -2.08%, Health Care -1.41%, Materials -1.20%, Industrials -1.18% and Consumer Discretionary -0.77%.
Lastly, in Commodity and Currency News, crude oil prices dropped further into a bear market on Friday, with prices dropping under $50 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) declined over -2.3% and Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) slumped almost -1.7%. Gold (NYSE:GLD) also tumbled -3.61%, now costing under $1,600 as investors begin to weigh future demand with Friday's plunging market. Finally, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) ended Friday still losing its gains from a week prior, with the DXY Index declining -0.27%.