Coronavirus Ignites Triple Dose of Daily, Weekly Losses for Stocks

Gold marked a confident monthly and weekly win

Managing Editor
Jan 31, 2020 at 4:39 PM
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The seemingly endless worry surrounding the impact of the wide-spreading coronavirus on the economy, trade, travel, and health sent the Dow 600 points south on the day to close out January. In fact, all three indexes closed deep in the red, with the S&P off a triple digit pullback as well. However, paring some of the Nasdaq's losses throughout the day was an impressive earnings report out of Amazon.com (AMZN). The blue-chip index, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all raked in weekly losses as well, with the latter-most the only to make it out of January in the black.

Continue reading for more on today's market, including:

  • Flashing bull signal says this software name is ready to surge. 
  • The video game stock that brushed off an earnings win.
  • Plus, economic fears drive stocks lower; one Dow stock bucking the broadmarket trend; and 3 record-breaking earnings winners.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI - 28,256.03) let go 603.4 points, or 2.1%. IBM (IBM) led the four winners with a 5.1% gain, while Dow (DOW) once again paced the remaining losers with a 4.9% drop. For the week, the blue-chip index fell 2.5% and for the month shed 1%.

The S&P 500 Index (SPX - 3,225.52) lost 58.1 points, or 1.8% on the day, 2.1% for the week, and 0.2% for January. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC - 9,150.94) finished 148 points, or 1.6%, lower today, closed down 1.8% for the week, but scraped together a monthly gain of 2%.

The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX - 18.84) added 3.4 points, or 21.6% for today's trading, added 29.4% on the week, and 36.7% on the month.

Closing Index Summary January 31

NYSE and Nasdaq January 31

5 Items on Our Radar Today

  1. Amid the global panic over the coronavirus outbreak, the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) said America will have to act quickly and aggressively to keep the illness from spreading on domestic soil. The State Department will help American citizens get out of China, as the worldwide count has gone up to nearly 10,000 cases. (Bloomberg)
  2. Two people have been taken into custody after manning a black SUV past two security checkpoints at President Donald Trump's popular Mar-a-Lago resort. Officials fired at the vehicle, which then fled and was later recovered shortly before arrests were made. Trump was scheduled to arrive at the resort later today. (CNBC)
  3. How global economic fears drove stocks lower this week.
  4. The chip stock that just popped on a c-suite exit.
  5. Three earnings winners that climbed to record highs.

Corporate Earnings January 31

Unusual Options Activity January 31

Data courtesy of Trade-Alert

Oil Suffers 16% January Sell-Off

Global economic concerns and health fears had oil futures suffering for the last day of January. March-dated crude futures lost 58 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $51.56 per barrel. For the week, oil marked four straight losses and fell 4.9%. For the month, it stepped back nearly 16%.

Meanwhile, gold pared losses with the continued global health crises, but failed to bring in a daily win. It did, however, mark its highest weekly win since 2013. Gold for April delivery dropped $1.30, or 0.1%, to settle at $1,587.90 per ounce for the day, but added  0.6% for the week, and 3.8% for the month of January.

 

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