North American indices began Wednesday in rally mode, but slumped as the afternoon wore on.<\/p>\n
Except for Nasdaq, which hung on for a 0.17% gain, the Dow, S&P and TSX all ended the session decidedly negative. The TSX lost 0.79% and the Dow has lost tumbled 7% this week so far. The reason remains coronavirus<\/a> fears, driven by fresh reports that cases continue to climb in South Korea, Italy and Iran. Also, there were reports<\/a> that cases had started to appear in the U.S. Rattling investors even more were conflicting signals that Trump<\/a> and his own White House have been sending the public.<\/p>\n In Toronto, only the tech sector was spared the sell-off with Shopify<\/a> climbing 1.1%, while most gold stocks continued to attract jittery investors seeking a safe haven. Alacer Gold<\/a> was the biggest gainer of the bunch, spiking 4.72%. Gold itself rose 0.27%.<\/p>\n However, the most telling news came after the closing bell when Microsoft<\/a> warned<\/a> it will miss its sales target due to the coronavirus. MSFT’s warning follows those by Apple and Mastercard<\/a>. MSFT actually rose 1.25% in Wednesday’s session, but lost all that and more in after-hours trading.<\/p>\n