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