The US indexes ended the stock trading session on Wednesday mostly into the red, extending its series of downturns this week.

The blue-chip index Dow Jones Industrial Average wiped out 120 points, or 0.46%, closing at 26,957.59 points. Earlier in the session, the benchmark reached a growth of 1.7%.

The broader S&P 500 dropped by 0.38% to 3,116.39 points after rising by over 1% at the beginning of the trading session. The energy sector weighed heavily on the S&P 500 with a decline of 3%.

The technology benchmark Nasdaq Composite ended into positive territory, adding 0.17% to 8,980.77 points, but earlier was moving with a gain of 2%.

Traders buy and sell stocks, creating volatility in the market, because of the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus epidemic and its impact on global growth.

Yields on 10-year US Treasury securities reached an absolute bottom of 1.3%, after moving around 1.36% during the day. Bond yields have plummeted after media reports say the epidemic is about to become a pandemic, according to a spokesman for the US Food and Drug Administration.

US President Donald Trump holds a press conference on the spread of the disease. He placed Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the US government response to the novel coronavirus, amid growing criticism of the White House’s handling of the outbreak.

“Because of all we’ve done, the risk to the American people remains very low”, said Donald Trump.

The President did not close the door to Senate Democrats’ call for more than 8 billion USD in emergency funding for anti-coronavirus efforts, despite Democrats’ dramatic jump from the 2.5 billion USD in total funding proposed by the White House.

“We’ll spend whatever is appropriate. Hopefully, we won’t have to spend so much because we really think that we’ve done a great job in keeping it down to a minimum”, added the US President.

The sell-off on the US markets on Monday and Tuesday cost the S&P 500 1.7 trillion USD. In just two days, the decline was 6.3%, the largest two-day decrease since August 2015.

The Cboe Volatility Index, known as the “Fear Index”, reached 28.4 points on Wednesday, close to its highest level.

The dollar index, which measures the strength of US money against a basket of competing currencies, rose to 99.15 points.

Corporate stocks performance

The stocks of Disney were the worst-performing component of blue-chip index Dow Jones Industrial Average, wiping out 3.7%. The reason was Bob Iger’s decision to step down as CEO.

Exxon Mobil and Chevron declined by more than 2.2%.

Travel and cruise companies were performing particularly bad during the trading session, weighing heavily on the Wall Street indexes.

However, the technology giant Apple gained 1.59% during the session. The stocks of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc were also into the green, adding 2.33%.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were TJX Companies Inc (+7.15%), Gilead Sciences Inc (+6.56%) and CME Group Inc (+5.69%), while on the flipside were Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (-8.05%), Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (-7.89%) and TripAdvisor Inc (-7.85%).