Wall Street stocks plunge, Dow declares bear market

In light of the World Health Organization’s declaration of COVID-19 being a pandemic, the Dow confirmed a bear market with Wall Street stocks crashing down.

The three major U.S. stock averages plunged on Wednesday as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite index hitting 19% below their record on Feb. 19, their highest records for the year thus far. Boeing Co also experienced a major setback, suffering an 18.2% fall after it announced implementing a full drawdown of an existing $13.8 billion loan on Friday.

The bear market occurs when an index hits 20% or lower its most recent highest gain.

On top of this, the U.S. government was reported to hold meetings to discuss the outbreak.

“There’s just a plethora of bad news today, a growing number of people with the disease, there are different points of view in how stimulus should work, and the market is acting accordingly,” Peter Tuz, Chase Investment Counsel President said.