Stocks Fall as Second Virus Case in U.S. Spooks Investors

Updates on the spreading virus overshadowed bright spots for investors throughout the day. Surveys of activity in the American manufacturing and services sectors both showed growth in January.

And on Thursday, after the close of trading, Intel announced better-than-expected profit and sales results for the fourth quarter, citing strong growth in sales of chips for data centers. Intel’s shares rose more than 8 percent.

Before the start of trading on Friday, American Express reported better-than-expected profits and provided an optimistic outlook for results in 2020. Its shares rose 2.8 percent.

At times, Friday’s sell-off was a steeper slide than investors had experienced in a while, with stocks down more than 1.2 percent at some points in the afternoon.

Had the SP 500 closed at that level, the decline would have been the index’s first of more than 1 percent since Oct. 8, when a flare-up of tensions between the United States and China sent shares down 1.6 percent.

Ultimately, the market pared back some of its deepest losses before the close of trading. Even after the drop, the SP 500 remains up 2 percent in January, a strong start after the market’s 28.9 percent rise in 2019.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/24/business/stock-market-today.html?emc=rss&partner=rss