Profit taking? U.S. stock markets drop sharply

The US stock market dropped sharply on Friday, but all three major indexes rose by about 10% throughout the week.

The Dow closed at 21636 points, 915 points loss. The S&P 500 index closed at 2541 points, 88 points loss.

The cumulative number of confirmed cases of new coronavirus pneumonia in the United States surpassed China and Italy. The market is concerned about the impact of the epidemic on the U.S. economy. Furthermore, the oil market is still gloomy which affect the investment sentiment. There was profit taking pressure in US stocks after the strong rebound in recent days.

The House of Representatives approved the $2 trillion economic stimulus plan, and US President Trump signed the plan after the US stock market closed. However, as the market has already priced in this factor, it did not help much on the Friday market.

Overall, the three major US stock indexes have reversed the decline over the past two weeks. In summary, this week, the Dow rose 12.8%, its biggest weekly increase since June 1938, almost 82 years ago. The S&P 500 index rose nearly 10.3%, and the Nasdaq rose nearly 9.1%, both rose the most since March 2009.