North America’s premier stock-market index is still sky-high, in historical terms.
But that still doesn’t erase the fact that today’s 1,031-point fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Average was the third-largest one-day decline in history.
The basket of 30 large-cap stocks closed at 27,960.80, off 3.56 percent from this morning’s opening.
Every single Dow stock fell—the smallest decline was recorded by Travelers Companies Inc., which was off just 0.77 percent.
United Health Group took the biggest hit, dropping 7.84 percent.
Others that saw more than four percent declines included Cisco Systems Inc. (-4.96 percent), Visa (-4.8 percent), Apple (-4.75 percent), Walgreens (-4.7 percent), ExxonMobil Corp. (-4.69 percent), Microsoft (-4.3 percent), Nike (-4.3 percent), and Walt Disney Co. (-4.3 percent).
Many analysts are blaming this mini-crash on COVID-19, a.k.a. the novel coronavirus, which is infecting more people outside of China.
The S&P 500 Index, on the other hand, only registered a 3.35 percent decline today. And the TSX dropped 280.79 points to close at 17,563. That was a mere 1.57 percent decline.
Not a good day for weed shareholders
It was also a rough day for investors in Canadian cannabis companies.
The largest, Canopy Growth Corporation, was down 6.68 percent to close at $26.98.
The biggest loser in percentage terms was Nanaimo-based Tilray Class 2 common shares, which plunged 10.74 percent to end the day at US$17.29.
Another victim of the market sell-off was Cronos Group., which posted a 10.06 percent decline to close at $8.49.
Sundial Growers Inc., on the other hand, bucked the trend by rising 2.61 percent to close at $1.57.
