Stock Market News For Feb 24, 2020
Zacks Investment Research | Feb 23, 2020 09:40PM ET
U.S. stocks declined sharply on Friday following the outbreak of the coronavirus across the globe and more cases reported from China. Moreover, a couple of weak economic data for the U.S. economy also dented investors’ confidence.
Market participants have shifted investment from risky equities to safe-haven assets like gold and government bonds. All three major stock indexes plunged on Friday. For the week as a whole, these indexes finished in red.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) tumbled 0.8% or 227.51 points to close at 28,992.40. The S&P 500 tanked 1.1% to close at 3,337.75. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 9,576.59, plummeting 1.8%. The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) jumped 9.8% to close at 17.08, highest closing since Feb 3.
A total of 8.28 billion shares were traded Friday, higher than the last 20-session average of 7.66 billion. Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE 2.17-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 2.25-to-1 ratio favored declining issues.
How Did The Benchmarks Perform?
The Dow closed in negative territory with 21 components of the 30-stock index closing in the red while 9 ended in green. The blue-chip index posted its worst one-day percentage decline since Feb 7.
The benchmark S&P 500 finished also in the red. The technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK), the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (XLY) and the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR (XLC) plummeted 2.2%, 1.5% and 1.5%, respectively. Notably, eight out of 11 sectors of the benchmark index closed in the red while three finished in green.
The Nasdaq Composite ended in the negative territory due to weak performance by semiconductor stocks. The tech-laden index recorded its largest single-day percentage drop since Jan 27. Shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) and NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) plunged 7% and 4.7%, respectively. NVIDIA carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see Original post
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