Stocks ended sharply lower Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing below the psychologically important 20,000 level for the first time since February 2017 as investors continued to dump equities and other assets on worries over the economic impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.87% dropped around 1,334 points, or 6.3%, to end near 19,904, according to preliminary figures, while the S&P 500 SPX, -1.11% ended down around 131 points, or 5.2%, near 2,398. The Nasdaq Composite COMP, -1.07% finished around 345 points lower, down 4.7%, near 6,990.