US stocks end higher over coronavirus concerns

Wall Street stocks finished higher Thursday, advancing after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus an international emergency but did not recommend restrictions on the movement of people. Stocks had spent much of the session in the red, but pushed higher on the WHO announcement, a sign "the worst-case scenario was off the table" as far as what the international body might recommend, said Patrick O´Hare of Briefing.com.

The market´s reaction "might seem counterintuitive," O´Hare added, but by not recommending restrictions on people and goods, the emergency announcement "seemingly helped reduce concerns that other countries, particularly large developed economies, might follow China´s lead in also restricting the movement of people and goods."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4 percent to finish the day at 28,859.44. The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.3 percent to close at 3,283.66, and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also rose 0.3 percent to 9,298.93.

The gains came on a heavy day for earnings and as the Commerce Department reported that US growth for 2019 came in at 2.3 percent, a solid level, but the slowest since 2016.

Among individual companies, Tesla rocketed up 10.3 percent as fourth-quarter earnings topped expectations and the company characterized 2019 as a "turning point" after years of losses. The electric-car maker plans to deliver more than a half million vehicles in 2020, 36 percent more than 2019. But Facebook plunged 6.1 percent despite reporting higher quarterly profits. Analysts cited slowing growth and disappointment with elements of the company´s forecast.

Cigarette maker Altria slumped 4.3 percent after announcing a $4.1 billion write-down of its Juul investment, further slashing the value of the once high-flying e-cigarette company, which faces lawsuits and a regulatory crackdown.

Among other companies reporting results, Microsoft gained 2.8 percent, CocaCola jumped 3.3 percent, Mondelez surged 7.8 percent and UPS fell 6.8 percent. U.S. stocks rebounded aggressively in the final hour of trade to close higher Thursday, after the major benchmarks traded in the red for most of the session, as investors decided to look past fears about the economic impact of the coronavirus epidemic and focus on a spate of positive earnings reports, including those from Dow components Microsoft and Coca Cola.

What are major indexes doing?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.43% gained 124.99 points, or 0.4%, to 28,859.44, the S&P 500 index

SPX, +0.31% gained 10.26 points, or 0.3%, to 3,283.66 and The Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.26% advanced 23.77 points, or 0.3%, to 9,298.93. For the week, the Dow is on pace to decline 0.5%, the S&P 500 0.4% and the Nasdaq is tracking for a 0.2% loss.

At session lows, the Dow lost 244.69 points, or 0.9%, the S&P 500 was down 30.60 points, or 0.9% and the Nasdaq traded 89.98 points lower, or 1%.

What’s driving the market?

The World Health Organization declared coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern, after the disease has spread to 18 different countries, with person-to-person transmissions occurring within the borders of Germany, Japan, Vietnam, and the U.S., as well as China, where the outbreak began.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first case of transmission of the disease within U.S. borders on Thursday. Five other Americans have been infected with the disease while abroad. Chinese authorities on Thursday said more than 7,700 people have been infected, with at least 170 dead.

Wall Street has been dogged by worries over the coronavirus epidemic’s potential impact on economic growth this week, and a renewed selloff that started in Asia on Thursday spread to European markets.