Dow plunges over 700 points amid COVID-19 fears

Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, the United States, May 12, 2021.(Courtney Crow/NYSE/handout via Xinhua)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 725.81 points, or 2.09 percent. The massive losses came as a rise in new cases of COVID-19 rattled investors.

NEW YORK, July 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks fell sharply on Monday as fears over a resurgence in COVID-19 cases sparked a broad market sell-off on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 725.81 points, or 2.09 percent, to close at 33,962.04, after shedding more than 900 points at its session lows. The S&P 500 sank 68.67 points, or 1.59 percent, to 4,258.49. The Nasdaq Composite Index slid 152.25 points, or 1.06 percent, to 14,274.98.

All the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in red, with energy down 3.59 percent, leading the losses.

The Cboe Volatility Index, widely considered as the best fear gauge in the stock market, spiked 22 percent to 22.50.

U.S.-listed Chinese companies traded mostly lower with eight of the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index ending the day on a downbeat note.

The massive losses came as a rise in new cases of COVID-19 rattled investors.

Key indicators of COVID-19 transmission in the United States continue to surge amid a slowdown of vaccination rates and rapid spread of variants.

The average number of new daily cases was about 26,000 in the seven-day ending Sunday, compared with a seven-day average of around 11,000 daily cases a month ago, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the week ending July 16, the Dow lost 0.5 percent, while the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 1 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively, pressured by a continued rise in U.S. inflation readings.