Friday's early trade: Investors flee Wall Street, seek shelter in bond and gold

US stock markets tanked and the Dow Jones Industrials shed more than 800 points on Friday, as the global tally of coronavirus infections surpassed 100,000 and jittery investors took cover in the perceived safety of bonds and gold. The outbreak, which spread to four new US states on Thursday, has crippled supply chains and prompted a sharp cut to global economic growth forecasts for 2020.

Yields on long-dated US Treasury notes hit all-time lows, wiping out the dollar's single greatest attraction for investors - higher interest rates. That pressured rate-sensitive bank stocks, with the S&P financial index nursing some of the biggest losses among the major sub-sectors. The banking sub-index was down 4.1%, bringing its total decline for the week to over 7%.

"It's proving very difficult right now for market participants to look through another year of poor global growth and flat-to-negative earnings," said Peter Cecchini, chief market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York. Starbucks Corp fell 4% after signaling a business hit due to fewer customers at its Chinese stores, while Costco Wholesale Corp was off 2% as it said it was struggling to keep up with demand for essentials, including disinfectants.

On Friday, investors also looked past data showing a robust pace of hiring in February, underscoring the panic around the potential end of the longest US economic expansion on record. At 10:18 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 686.74 points, or 2.63%, at 25,434.54, while the S&P 500 was down 82.16 points, or 2.72%, at 2,941.78. The Nasdaq Composite was down 211.56 points, or 2.42%, at 8,527.04. All 11 S&P sectors were trading lower, led by a 5.2% drop in energy stocks, which tracked a slump in oil prices.