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| - Wall Street stocks hit fresh session lows Wednesday afternoon on mounting worries over the economic hit from the coronavirus as more major events were canceled. Near 1930 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 23,469.13, down around 1,550 points or 6.2 percent. The broad-based S&P 500 tumbled 5.5 percent to 2,724.40, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 5.4 percent to 7,896.81. Stocks have been in the red all day, but losses accelerated after the World Health Organization declared the virus a pandemic. The latest pullback pushed the Dow into a "bear market," defined as a 20 percent drop from the peak. The latest announcements included the cancelation of the Houston Rodeo, Washington state and San Francisco's ban on mass events and a plan from the Golden State Warriors to play games with the stands empty. Hotel chain Hilton became the latest big company to withdraw its earnings forecast due to the clouded economic forecast. "All these announcements coming out are sending people running for the hills," said Maris Ogg of Tower Bridge Advisors. "It's still gonna take some time until the market gets past the panic." While stocks rallied on Tuesday, equities have been on a broad downward trend for the last three weeks or so as the coronavirus has morphed from a China-centered problem to a global worry, threatening the 11-year US "bull" market for stocks. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a congressional panel the administration was "working full time" on a package, although key lawmakers balked at payroll tax relief plan floated by the administration. Travel-linked stocks remained an especially ugly sector, with Marriott International down 8.8 percent, United Airlines 7.6 percent and Expedia 11.7 percent. Boeing was the biggest loser in the Dow, slumping 17.5 percent as it announced it was suspending most hiring and overtime pay as it works to conserve cash in the face of twin crises: the grounding of the 737 MAX and a massive slowdown in travel due to coronavirus. jmb/cs
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