Coronavirus fears have led to a stock plunge.The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 979 points, or 3.4 percent, lower at Monday's opening, putting it on pace for its biggest one-day point drop in three years, per CNBC. The record currently belongs to a 1,175-point decline in February 2018. At the moment, the drop is the third-highest in that timeframe, and the Dow has erased its gains for the year, per Bloomberg.
The other major indexes, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite, fell 3.2 percent and 4 percent, respectively, and several major industries, especially those that rely heavily on Chinese consumers, have also taken hits as a result of the virus' global spread, which now has countries like
Italy,
Iran, and
South Korea undertaking significant measures to contain it.