Dow falls over 2% as new Covid-19 variant spooks investors; Nasdaq down 1%

The S&P 500 was down 86.05 points, or 1.83%, at 4,615.41 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 214.71 points, or 1.36%, at 15,630.52

The Dow dragged Wall Street's main indexes lower on Friday, with travel, bank and commodity-linked stocks bearing the brunt of a selloff triggered by the discovery of a new and possibly vaccine-resistant coronavirus variant.

Cruise operators Carnival Corp, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line plunged more than 9% each, while shares in United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines slumped almost 10%.

Ten of the 11 major S&P sectors dropped in early trading, with energy sliding 6.3% followed by financials and industrials. The domestically focused Russell 2000 small-cap index tumbled 3.6%, hitting its lowest level in over four