Wall Street plunges as coronavirus spreads

The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday suffered their biggest one-day percentage losses in two years after a surge in coronavirus cases outside China fanned worries about the global economic impact of a potential pandemic.

Yahaira Jacquez reports.

Stocks on Wall Street plunged on Monday as concerns dramatically intensified about the economic impact of the coronavirus amid a surge of cases outside China.

It was the Dow and S&P 500's biggest one-day percentage drop in two years.

The Dow plummeted more than 1000 points and the S&P fell more than 3 percent.

While the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed the day nearly 4% lower.

Investors fled equities and rushed into safe-havens - like gold - after a surge of coronavirus cases were reported in Italy and South Korea, putting two more major economies at risk from a virus that has already caused widespread business disruption in China.

Kramer Capital Research's Hilary Kramer says global economic growth is at risk.

(SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) KRAMER CAPITAL RESEARCH'S HILARY KRAMER SAYING: "The coronavirus can really create a serious, significant negative GDP around the world.

This is really serious.

In that we depend globally that every single day factories are going, inventory is being shipped, that buying is taking place.

Any slowdown, any standstill like that just creates ripples throughout the entire system and the slowdown is so pervasive that I am expecting - China could have negative GDP." Another possible issue that the market appeared to be grappling with Monday: a potential Bernie Sanders nomination.

After his strong showing in Nevada, healthcare stocks took a hit, with UnitedHealth Group's stock tumbling nearly 8%.

But it was tech and chip stocks that led the sell-off on Wall Street.

Chipmakers, which rely heavily on China, were down.

Apple shares slid as data showed sales of smartphones in China tumbled by more than a third in January.

While fears of the coronavirus clobbered most stocks, investors turned to some consumer companies as they bet on the stock-piling of products.

Clorox, a supplier of bleach and other cleaning products, was one of the top percentage gainers in the S&P 500.

Other gainers included Campbell Soup.