The Dow is on pace for its biggest 1-day drop in 3 years

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

published 24 February 2020

Coronavirus fears have led to a stock plunge.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 979 points, or 3.4 percent, lower at Monday's opening, putting it on pace for its biggest one-day point drop in three years, per CNBC. The record currently belongs to a 1,175-point decline in February 2018. At the moment, the drop is the third-highest in that timeframe, and the Dow has erased its gains for the year, per Bloomberg.

The other major indexes, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite, fell 3.2 percent and 4 percent, respectively, and several major industries, especially those that rely heavily on Chinese consumers, have also taken hits as a result of the virus' global spread, which now has countries like Italy, Iran, and South Korea undertaking significant measures to contain it. Tim O'Donnell

The Week

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.