This morning it looked like U.S. stocks would bounce from the drop of Monday and Tuesday–about 6% on the Standard & Poor’s 500. As of 10:51 a.m. New York time the index was up 1.64% to 3182.08.
But that has turned out to be the high of the day. By 12:18 p.m. the index was off 0.01%. There was a brief rally to a positive 0.71% at 12:35, but the afternoon turned into a fairly steady drift lower to 0.38% lower at the lose. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.46% and the Russell 2000 small cap index finished down 1.19%. Only the NASDAQ Composite bucked the trend among U.S. indexes to close up 0.17%.
In the last 24 hours more coronavirus cases were reported in countries other than China for the first time since the initial patient was identified on Dec. 8, the World Health Organization said. New infections were diagnosed in countries from Pakistan to Brazil, which reported the first case in Latin America, while Italy and Iran confirmed additional patients with the disease. Germany said it was likely at the start of an epidemic while reporting new cases of the virus in the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Wurttemberg.
Neither gold nor Treasuries moved up solidly today with gold falling 0.46% on the Comex in New York and the yield on the 10-year Treasury dipping a slight 2 basis points to 1.33%.
Oil, however, took it on the chin today with U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate fall 2.46% to take the price of a barrel below the $50 level to $48.67. International benchmark Brent crude dropped 2.80% to $53.41 a barrel.
