By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks were back on the roller-coaster at opening on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling over 700 points as fears about the spread of the coronavirus returned.
The Federal Reserve’s emergency rate cut, the approval of an $8.3 billion spending bill for measures to tackle the virus in the U.S., and the supposedly market-friendly outcome of the Democratic primaries on ‘Super Tuesday’ were all quickly forgotten as more and more countries adopted travel restrictions and other emergency measures to contain the outbreak.
By 9:53 AM ET (1453 GMT), the Dow was down 764 points or 2.8%, while the S&P 500 was down 2.7% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.4%.
Airline stocks were once again in the thick of things, after a global industry body nearly quadrupled its estimate of how much the sector could lose in revenue this year due to the disease to $113 billion from $29 billion.
The International Air Travel Association said revenue losses at North American airlines could hit over $21 billion, while European airlines could lose double that.
Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) stock fell 5.0% after it warned of a $300 million hit to revenue in the first quarter alone.
American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) stock, meanwhile, fell 7.8% and Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) stock fell 5.5%, while United Airlines stock 7.6% and JetBlue stock fell 8.2%.
The shockwaves continued to pass through the rest of the travel sector, with traditional players such as hotel operator Marriott falling 4.6% and newer players such as Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG).com falling 4.7%.
On the upside, Zoom Video Communications stock rose 2.4%, bouncing from premarket losses of over 7%, as more people placed bets on a boom in remote meetings as a result of the collapse in business travel due to the virus.
Elsewhere, crude oil futures lost early gains amid doubts that OPEC can persuade Russia to sign up to a new output cut of 1.5 million barrels a day, while gold futures roared higher on a fresh wave of flows into haven assets. Gold for delivery on the Comex exchange was up 1.0% at $1,658.65 an ounce.