Global stocks drop after Wall Street plunge on coronavirus fears

Stock markets around the world were reeling Friday after Wall Street suffered its biggest one-day plunge in nine years amid fears of the coronavirus spreading across the globe.

Markets in Tokyo and Shanghai fell nearly 4 percent, Germany’s DAX dropped over 5 percent, London’s FTSE 100 sank about 3 percent and France’s CAC 40 went down almost 3 percent, The Associated Press reported.

These drops come after the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted nearly 1,200 points on Thursday. The drop marked the largest single-day point drop in history and brought the total point loss for the week to 3,225.77 points, or 11.1 percent.

The S&P 500 also fell on Thursday, dropping 4.4 percent.

Fears that the virus that has infected more than 80,000 people worldwide — the vast majority in mainland China — is spreading have thrown the markets into disarray.

On Thursday, the U.S. announced its first case of coronavirus in a person who hadn’t traveled abroad or been in contact with anyone who had recently traveled abroad.

The Trump administration on Wednesday announced that Vice President Pence would lead the effort to fight the virus in the U.S.

Pence on Thursday added officials to his task force after facing criticism over his qualifications to lead the effort.