The stock markets in New York opened considerably lower on Friday, following the hefty price losses of a day earlier.
The fear of the new coronavirus continues to dominate Wall Street, now that the number of infections in the world has risen to more than 100,000. A much better-than-expected report on the US job market could not help sentiment among investors.
The Dow-Jones index recorded a minus of 2.7 percent on 25,414 points shortly after the start. The broad-based S&P 500 fell 2.8 percent to 2938 points, and the Nasdaq technology fair fell 2.6 percent to 8516 points. On Thursday, the meters on Wall Street left the market with minuses up to 3.6 percent.
Again, cruise and airline companies had a challenging time due to the negative impact of the coronavirus outbreak on tourism and travel.
Carnival, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line, for example, fell by 7.5 percent. Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines lost up to 6 percent.
The financial sector was also walloped. The significant banks Goldman Sachs, JP Organ Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley, lost up to 6.3 percent in market value.
The US government announced that employment in the United States increased by 273,000 jobs in February, while economists had expected a growth of 175,000. The unemployment rate in the US fell to 3.5 percent.
