Amid all of the attention on the coronavirus outbreak and related market volatility, and rightly so, we did get one of the most impactful U.S. economic data points on Monday—the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for manufacturing. Sounds wonky but this report has a fairly good track record of predicting near-term movements in the U.S. economy. That’s why we pay close attention to it. The very weak PMI reading out of China over the weekend heightened interest in this report.

The February reading is interesting because it encompasses some of the initial hit to business and cons

Last week was one of the worst in the history of the stock market, with the S&P 500 Index losing more than 11%, for its worst week since October 2008. Sparking the fear and selling were concerns over COVID-19 or the coronavirus as most know it. “Markets hate uncertainty, and global investors took a sell-first-and-ask-questions-later mentality,” explained LPL Financial Senior Market Strategist Ryan Detrick. “We just don’t know how bad this will get.”

• While we certainly do not want to be dismissive of the tragic loss of life, amid the unnerving market volatility, there are some positives wor

Stocks just suffered their worst week since the global financial crisis on coronavirus outbreak fears. Last week’s 11.5% drop in the S&P 500 Index brought the index into correction territory. We provide context for the sell‐off and discuss potential U.S. and global economic impacts of the outbreak, although this situation remains fluid, very uncertain, and even a bit scary.   

Context on The Sell-Off

Fears surrounding the coronavirus outbreak—or COVID-19—caused significant market volatility this week, wiping out all of the gains from the S&P 500 Index since October 2019. While we want to

U.S. stocks suffered their worst weekly decline since the 2008–09 financial crisis as COVID-19 outbreak fears intensified and drove a wave of heavy selling. One U.S. case of community transmission plus raised warning levels from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) appeared to spark the selling. The S&P 500 Index lost more than 11% for the week, bringing the seven-day decline to almost 13%, the fastest correction to an all-time high ever recorded.

All four major U.S. stock indexes we track ended the week sharply lower, with losses between 10.5% and 12.4%. No sector