May 12 (UPI) — U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday amid growing concerns about plans to reopen the economy following measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 457.21 points, or 1.89 percent, at the end of trading on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 fell 2.05 percent and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.06 percent.
Influencing the U.S. markets on Tuesday was a Senate hearing that featured testimony from members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Appearing via videoconference, Dr. Anthony Fauci cautioned against reopening the U.S. and state economies too soon.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, told the health, education, labor and pensions committee he would be concerned about reopening before seeing a steady decline in cases.
Stocks expected to benefit most from reopening economies dropped on Tuesday as Disney fell 3 percent and Nike slid 2.98 percent.
Bank stocks also experienced a decline as Citigroup dropped 3.88 percent, JPMorgan Chase slid 3.27 percent and Bank of America fell 3.14 percent.
Meanwhile, tech stocks, which had driven the market to recent gains slipped on Tuesday as Alphabet stock dropped 2.16 percent, Alphabet fell 2.02 percent, Netflix slid 1.97 percent, Facebook lost 1.44 percent and Apple dropped 1.14 percent.
