The New York Stock Exchange plunged into the red at the opening Wednesday with less than a week of the presidential election, with investors fearing the economic impact of the rise in coronavirus cases around the world.
Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was at its lowest level in just over a month, fell 1.65% to 27,010.56 points around 13:45 GMT.
The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, lost 1.99% to 11,204.42 points.
The extended S&P 500 index dropped 1.87% to 3,327.34 points.
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"Global market unrest is intensifying over the economic implications of responses to the persistent rise in new cases of Covid-19 in the United States and Europe," Schwab analysts said.
The day before, Wall Street, after a Monday already in the red, had remained in waiting mode: the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen by 0.80%, the Nasdaq had however appreciated by 0.64%.
The broader S&P 500 Index was down 0.30%.
"Investors are grappling with three main headwinds", summarized Art Hogan, economist for National: "the increase in Covid-19 cases with an average of 70,000 new cases per week for the first time (...) , the fact that there was no fiscal stimulus and finally the uncertainty of the presidential election ”.
“Hospitalizations linked to Covid-19 climbed by at least 10% last week in 32 American states”, the analyst added.
Investors would also digest a salvo of results including those of Boeing, which announced 7,000 new job cuts in 2021, for a total of 30,000 since the start of the year.
The title of the aircraft manufacturer lost 2.82%.
The big tech titles slipped like Amazon (-2%), Apple (-2.30%) Facebook (-3.17%) and Tesla (-3%).
On Wednesday, the world stock markets were also under pressure, investors fearing additional turns of the screw in Europe, in health measures, to stem the epidemic.
