It wasn't a particularly positive week for equities. In fact, it was negative, across the board, ending with a massive selloff on Friday, culminating in the worst week for US stocks since October, 2019.
The better part of the decline came on Friday, after the WHO had issued an international alert on the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and US stocks soared off lows on Thursday. Reality set in Friday and accounted for 75-80% of the total weekly decline.
As the weekend wore on (this is now Sunday noon in the US, Eastern Time), more reports proved encouraging. The official count from China confirmed 14,380 cases total, and 304 deaths. On Saturday, a death in the Philippines was suggested to have been caused by coronavirus but that has yet to be confirmed. Medical professionals are awaiting further testing. The patient died from pneumonia, but it may have come from normal, seasonal flu.
In the US, there's a better chance of dying from the common flu than the coronavirus, according to the CDC.
Preliminary considerations are suggesting that the spread of the virus is being slowed by China's quarantines and travel restrictions and monitoring around the world and that many reports on social media such as Twitter and Facebook have proven false, misleading or negatively hyperbolic.
Patient Zero, i.e., the first case of the disease to have been reported in the United States (Washington state), became quite ill, was treated intravenously with remdesivir (a drug produced by Gilead Sciences (GILD)) and was recovering.
Also on Friday, Great Britain finally extricated itself from the European Union via what's been known as Brexit, the referendum passed by the British public more than three-and-a-half years ago (June 23, 2016), and President Trump appeared on the way to being acquitted on charges of impeachment by the Senate, which voted 51-49 against calling additional witnesses. A final vote on acquittal or guilt will be held at 4:00 pm ET, Wednesday, February 5.
As frightening as the coronavirus and other news may be, people around the world can take heart in the video below: Nigel Farage's final speech at the European Parliament. As of 11:00 pm January 31, 2020, Britain formally withdrew from the European Union.
At the Close, Friday, January 31, 2020:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 28,256.03, -603.41 (-2.09%)
NASDAQ: 9,150.94, -148.00 (-1.59%)
S&P 500: 3,225.52, -58.14 (-1.77%)
NYSE: 13,614.10, -247.82 (-1.79%)
For the Week:
Dow: -733.70 (-2.53%)
NASDAQ: -163.98 (-1.76%)
S&P 500: -69.95 (-2.12%)
NYSE: -364.37 (-2.61%)
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