Stocks plunged on Friday as infections rose in several states, the White House relaunched its coronavirus taskforce, and Texas pulled back on the reins of its reopening.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 730 points, 2.84 percent, to 25015.55. The S&P 500 declined 2.42 percent. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.59 percent.
The yield on ten-year Treasuries, often viewed as a safe haven for investor cash, dropped to 0.64 percent. Yields move down when bond prices move up.
All 11 sectors of the S&P were down. The worst performing sector was communication services, a tech heavy category that includes Facebook, Google parent Alphabet, and Netflix, which fell 4.49 percent. Financials declined 4.33 percent. The best performing sector was utilities, which dropped by 1.03 percent.
The only gainer among the Dow stocks was Cisco, which rose 2.41 percent. The biggest decline was Goldman Sachs, down 8.65 percent after the Federal Reserve said Thursday that big bank capital restrictions would be limited due to economic risks stemming from the pandemic.