wall street down
wall street down

By Jonathan Garber FOXBusiness

The 10-year yield held near a record low on safety play.

U.S. equities remained under pressure Tuesday, a day after suffering their steepest declines in two years.

All three of the major averages opened with modest gains but quickly rolled over into negative territory extending the previous day’s losses that were brought on by the spreading of the coronavirus outside of China. The CDC advised Americans that the disease could spread in the United States.

TickerSecurityLastChangeChange %
SP500S&P 5003130.29-95.60-2.96%
I:DJIDOW JONES AVERAGES27072.34-888.46-3.18%
I:COMPNASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX8971.928986-249.35-2.70%

Selling accelerated in the afternoon with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down over 800 points or nearly 3 percent, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were off over  2 percent.

As money flowed out of stocks, investors bought U.S. Treasurys. The yield on the 10-year note closed down 4.9 basis points at a record low 1.328 percent, a sign of a flight to safety.

CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK INTENSIFIES RECESSION WORRIES

The equity selling follows Monday’s rout as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 fell more than 3 percent to their biggest losses in two years while the Nasdaq endured its largest decline since December 2018.

Updated figures from the World Health Organization show the coronavirus has infected 79,331 people worldwide while killing 2,618.

Looking at stocks, drugmakers working on treatments for the coronavirus, including Gilead Sciences and Novavax continued to gain ground while airlines and cruise operators recouped some of their losses.

Meanwhile, United Airlines suspended its full-year guidance due to uncertainty caused by the coronavirus.

TickerSecurityLastChangeChange %
GILDGILEAD SCIENCES INC.70.26-2.64-3.62%
NVAXNOVAVAX INC.7.89-0.27-3.31%
UALUNITED AIRLINES HLDG.70.84-4.63-6.13%
CCLCARNIVAL CORP.35.91-1.85-4.90%

On the earnings front, Home Depot reported better-than-expected top- and bottom-line results and hiked its dividend by 10 percent.

Macy’s fourth-quarter profit fell 54 percent year over year, but its fourth-quarter earnings and sales exceeded estimates.

Elsewhere, Shake Shack posted a fourth-quarter loss of $2.1 million, or 6 cents a share, as same-store sales slid 3.6 percent year over year.

Tupperware Brands was under pressure after warning on its 2019 profit and announcing an investigation into its accounting practices.

TickerSecurityLastChangeChange %
HDTHE HOME DEPOT INC.237.48-2.22-0.93%
MMACY’S INC.14.62-0.83-5.37%
SHAKSHAKE SHACK INC62.87-10.71-14.55%
TUPTUPPERWARE BRANDS CORP.3.12-2.60-45.41%

Commodities were lower with West Texas Intermediate crude oil down 3 percent at $49.90 a barrel and gold off 1.5 percent at $1646.90 an ounce.

In Europe, Britain’s FTSE, France’s CAC and Germany’s DAX were all lower by 1.9 percent.

Asian markets were mixed with Japan’s Nikkei tumbling 3.3 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite shedding 0.6 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng up 0.3 percent.

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