(Corrects company name from Friday’s story in the 6th paragraph to make it “Globalt” instead of “Global”)

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – U.S. stocks ended lower Friday with the Dow experiencing its largest one-day percentage drop in months and sectors affected by pandemics that gained from a reopening dropping sharply following a new coronavirus variant.

Worldwide authorities became alarmed Friday at the discovery of the coronavirus variant from South Africa. Britain and the European Union tightened their border controls to ensure that researchers could determine whether it is vaccine resistant.

Carnival Corporation, cruise operators Royal Caribbean (NYSE/NYSE:). Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line plunged by more than 10%. Shares in American Airlines (NASDAQ;), Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines also fell. In its largest one-day percentage drop since September 2020, the NYSE Arca Airline Index fell 6.45%.

Black Friday was the first day of holiday shopping and retailers saw their stock drop by 2.04%. They were concerned that the new format would decrease store traffic or curb supply.

Selling was broad, with big declines of more than 1% in all 11 major S&P sectors except healthcare, which fell just 0.45% thanks to COVID-19 vaccine makers Pfizer Inc (NYSE) rose 6.11% to close at record-high $54 Moderna Inc jumps 20.57%

“It is déjà vu all over again for like the eighth time,” said Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments in Atlanta.

What we have learned about the variant may accelerate over the weekend. However, if there’s more concerning news than positive news, people won’t be holding any risk assets on Monday morning. Or are scared of what it could look like.

Market participants acknowledged that the decline was probably exaggerated due to the low volume in the post-Thanksgiving period.

The fell 905.04 points, or 2.53%, to 34,899.34; the S&P 500 lost 106.84 points, or 2.27%, to 4,594.62; and the dropped 353.57 points, or 2.23%, to 15,491.66.

3.67% fell for the small-cap index, which is domestically focused. Both the S&P 500 and small cap Russell index posted their biggest one-day percentage drops since Feb. 25.

The S&P 500 banks index dropped 3.87% as investors dialed back expectations of faster U.S. interest rate hikes. The sector that performed best this year, energy, fell 4%, the largest drop in eight months.

Expectations that the central banking would raise interest rates earlier than they expected were fuelled by the high U.S. inflation and solid economic data.

CBOE’s volatility index is also known as Wall Street fear gauge. It reached its highest point since March early.

Stocks like Netflix Inc (NASDAQ :), Peloton Inter (NASDAQ 🙂 and Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:), also known as “stay at-home” names. All three have achieved solid advancements.

The NYSE saw decliners surpass advancers by a 5.84:1 ratio, while the Nasdaq witnessed a 3.96:1 ratio favoring decliners.

The S&P 500 posted seven new 52-week highs and 23 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 18 new highs and 334 new lows.