Sharp drops in Apple, Facebook and other big technology companies ended a miserable week on Wall Street on another sour note.
The S&P 500 gave back 1.2%, sealing back-to-back weekly losses and the second straight losing month for the benchmark index since March. Surging coronavirus cases in the U.S. and Europe have spooked investors into dumping riskier assets.
Washington's failure to deliver badly needed aid to the recession-struck economy and uncertainty about the presidential election have also cast a pall on markets. The drops in several high-flying Big Tech stocks came after those companies issued uncertain outlooks for the future.
On Friday, the number of coronavirus cases in the US rose to 9 million since the start of the pandemic. Many states are seeing record levels of cases and hospitalizations associated with the virus.