Silicon Valley Stocks Battered; Coronavirus Fear Tumbles Stock Market By Over 1,000 Points
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) -- The growing coronavirus outbreak that has forced Silicon Valley's tech giants to cancel plans to attend trades shows and impacted their supply chain from China took aim at their share prices Monday as the stock market dropped more than 1,000 points.
Dow Jones dropped 1,030.34 points. NASDAQ fell 355.31 points while the S&P 500 was down 111.82 points.
Facebook, which cancelled its global marketing meeting scheduled for San Francisco in March because of coronavirus fears, saw its stock price tumble 4.5 percent or $9.46 a share at the closing bell. The social media giant also cancelled executives travel plans to China -- the epicenter of the outbreak.
The downturn was also driving down prices on the other FAANG stocks that form a backbone on Wall Street for Silicon Valley.
Amazon, which joined Ericsson, Facebook, Sony, Intel and Cisco to pull out of World Mobile Congress, which was eventually cancelled, saw its stock drop 4.14 percent or $86.68 a share. Netflix was off nearly 3 percent or $11.37 a share.
Apple, whose component supply lines in China have been impacted by the outbreak, dropped 4.75 percent or $14.87 share. The company warned its investors last week that it won't meet its second-quarter financial guidance because the outbreak cut production of iPhones.
"The health and well-being of every person who helps make these products possible is our paramount priority, and we are working in close consultation with our suppliers and public health experts as this ramp continues," Apple said in a statement.
Meanwhile, shares of Alphabet (Google) fell by 4.29 percent or $63.60 a share.
Stocks fell sharply in early trading Monday, following a broad sell-off in overseas markets, as the surge in virus cases and a worrisome spread of the disease outside the epicenter in China sent investors running for safety.
Investors looking for safe harbors bid up prices for U.S. government bonds and gold. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell sharply, to 1.38% from 1.47% late Friday. Gold prices jumped 1.8%.
"Stock markets around the world are beginning to price in what bond markets have been telling us for weeks – that global growth is likely to be impacted in a meaningful way due to fears of the coronavirus," said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Independent Advisor Alliance.840 points, or 2.9%, to 28,146 and gave up all of its gains for the year."
