Wall Street worst hit in three decades amid coronavirus outbreak

As coronavirus pandemic is rampaging global markets all over, Wall Street stocks on March 16 recorded its worst day since 1987. According to reports, The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a stock market index that measures the performance of 30 biggest companies, fell by 12.9 per cent, which is nearly 3,000 points. The carnage came after the United States shut down a large part of the country due to coronavirus outbreak and advised people to stay at home. 

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As per reports, tech-rich Nasdaq, one of the three widely followed indices in the US stock market, fell by 12.3 per cent to 6,904.59, while S&P 500 shed 12.0 per cent to settle at 2,386.13. It was the worst day for Wall Street in three decades and the fear of recession still looms large. President Donald Trump on March 16 for the first time acknowledged that US economy 'may be' heading towards its worst, something which experts have indicated as well. 

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Donald Trump during a press briefing told reporters that as soon as the virus is eliminated the economy will take care of itself. Some of the big losers at Wall Street where companies like Boeing, which was already under crisis after the grounding of 737 MAX, recorded a whopping 23.8 per cent fall. McDonald's, Chevron, Intel, Home Depot were other big losers, all of which fell by 15 per cent. 

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Coronavirus outbreak

The United States has so far recorded 4,718 cases of coronavirus, of which 62 cases came in the last 24 hours and 74 of them have recovered fully. According to data acquired by worldometer, the United States has logged in 93 deaths since the virus first broke out in December last year. The total number of active cases in the country is above 4,500 of which 12 patients remain under critical condition. 

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The COVID-19 has claimed more than 7,100 lives across the world and has infected over 1,82,000 people globally since it first broke out in December 2019. China is the most affected country in the world as experts believe that the virus originated from a seafood market in Wuhan city, the epicentre of the disease, where animals were reportedly being traded illegally.