NEW YORK: U.S. stocks fell on Thursday, led by declines in technology heavyweights, after reports of new coronavirus cases in China and other countries intensified fears over its spread and impact on the global economy.
Investors were unnerved by a sharp late-morning drop that took the S&P 500 briefly down more than 1% on the day, with some traders attributing the move to a Global Times report that a central Beijing hospital had reported 36 new cases. This raised worries about a potential increase in infections in the Chinese capital.