Stocks crater under coronavirus concerns as volatility haunts Wall Street

Stocks closed with steep losses Thursday after coronavirus fears claimed nearly all of the gains from a colossal Wednesday rally.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed with a loss of 969 points, a 3.6 percent drop that nearly erased a 1,173-point Wednesday surge driven by soaring health care shares. The S&P 500 closed with a loss of 3.4 percent, while the Nasdaq composite closed 3.1 percent down.

Wall Street has been wracked by volatility in the nearly two weeks since the first cases of COVID-19 contracted through community spread appeared in the U.S. At least 162 people across 18 states have either tested positive for the coronavirus or are presumed positive by doctors, according to federal and state data, and the illness has claimed at least 11 lives in the U.S.

Public health officials say that the risk of contracting the virus remains low for most Americans, but is slightly higher in areas experiencing community spread.

The steady rise in confirmed coronavirus cases has fueled intense anxiety among investors and concerns among economists that efforts to contain the virus and its disruption of global activity could spur a severe downturn.

Stocks have whipsawed throughout the past four days after plunging into a correction last week, with Monday and Wednesday rallies punctuating another session of steep losses. 

Efforts to halt the spread of the coronavirus have closed schools, postponed conferences, forced flight cancelations, and dampened international travel for weeks. The growing numbers of cases of the virus in the U.S. and states experiencing community spread have bolstered fears of a prolonged outbreak that could wipeout months of economic growth.

“If health security controls fail to contain the spread of COVID-19, financial markets may soon have to accept that a global recession is a forgone conclusion,” wrote economists at financial services firm Nomura Holdings in a Friday research note.