Euphoric Year for Stocks Falls Apart With Outbreak Pummeling S&P
- Equities slide most since mid-August, almost erase year gains
- Investors are rethinking euphoria that sent shares to records
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The warnings were out there. It was coming too easy in the S&P 500. Records fell once every two days, valuations had swollen and each dip found buyers. It came asunder Monday.
In a market that had posted only two back-to-back drops all year, indexes skidded to the first three-day decline since early December, with the steepest drop since August almost wiping out the year-to-date rally in the benchmark gauge. Investors who for two months had looked past every threat to the markets abruptly turned bearish on rising concern the spread of the coronavirus will upend global economic growth.