By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P closed above the lows of day on Friday, but was unable to prevent its first weekly loss in three weeks as investors fretted over the coronavirus’ impact on global growth.
The S&P 500 fell 1.05%, Nasdaq Composite fell 1.79% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.78%.
With the spread of the coronavirus appearing to have picked up pace outside of China, traders were forced to consider whether the impact of the virus will be worse than feared.
South Korea recorded 100 new infections, the World Health Organization said Iran now has its first case of the illness and U.S. officials confirmed 34 cases of novel coronavirus in the country.
In China, meanwhile 800 new cases were reported overnight, taking the total to 75,000 confirmed cases and the death toll above 2,000.
Tech and energy were the worst hit on worries about a longer-than-expected disruptions to global supply chains and weaker Chinese oil demand.
Pacing the declines in tech, chip stocks fell 3%, pressured sharp decline in Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU).
Dropbox (NASDAQ:DBX) and Deere (NYSE:DE), however, bucked the trend on quarterly results that topped estimates.
Dropbox soared 20% as CEO Drew Houston said the company would turn a profit by the end of the year, following better-than-expected fourth-quarter results.
Deere, meanwhile, climbed 7% after topping estimates on both the top and bottom lines, with CEO John May touting optimism that weakness in the U.S. farm sector was reaching a bottom.
On the economic front, the U.S. services sector unexpectedly contracted this month, raising fears about the strength of the overall economy.
The risk-off trade triggered a bid in more defensive concerns of the market as consumer staples ended the day in the green.
In deal news, eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) rose 1% on a report the online marketplace is looking to offload its classified-ads business, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.