Ovunc Kutlu
17 February 2021•Update: 17 February 2021
ANKARA
US stocks opened lower Wednesday as investors turned toward liquidity against high volatility amid the uncertainty of strains of the coronavirus.
The Dow Jones was down 26 points to 31,496 at 9.48 a.m. EDT (1448GMT), while the S&P 500 fell 14 to 3,917 with Tesla losing more than 2%.
The Nasdaq shed 106 to 13,940 with Twitter, Zoom Video and Airbnb each declining more than 2%.
Coronavirus variants have increased risk in the markets, as the VIX volatility index, also known as the fear index, was up for the second consecutive day, increasing 3.7% to 22.55 on Wednesday. It jumped 7.5% in the previous session.
As investors have been taking a selloff in the markets, they turned toward liquidity, pushing the dollar index higher.
The index climbed to $91.04 shortly after the opening bell, before retreating to $90.96 with a 0.5% daily increase.
More than 1,200 cases of coronavirus variants have been reported in all 50 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Most of the cases, 1,277, were a result of the variant known as B.1.1.7 that originated in the UK that was detected in 42 states.
There were 17 cases of the South African B.1.351 strain observed in 10 states, and the P.1 variant that emerged in Brazil was seen in two states.
