NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street lost ground on Friday as mounting worries over the scope of the coronavirus outbreak overshadowed positive corporate earnings. All three major U.S. stock averages extended their losses after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the second case of the virus on U.S. soil, this time in Chicago. For the holiday-shortened week, all three indexes are on course to post a decline with the Nasdaq set to snap a six-week winning streak. Market participants kept a wary eye on developments surrounding the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization (WHO) deemed “an emergency in China,” having now killed 26 people and infected more than 800 on the eve of the Lunar New Year holiday.
“There’s not much confidence in actual fundamentals, and a scare like the virus can be enough to force investors to rethink if markets have run too far too fast for too long,” said David Carter, chief investment officer at Lenox Wealth Advisors in New York. “There’s lots of uncertainty in the markets and the virus scare has only added to that.” Analysts now expect earnings to have contracted by 0.5%, on aggregate, in the October to December quarter.