EDITOR'S NOTE
Stocks fell precipitously as coronavirus cases multiplied, adding to losses that began last week.
Oil dropped to its lowest levels since October on fears that the virus would disrupt an already weakened global economy.
CNBC's Jesse Pound writes that the market reaction may be overdone. The 2003 outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, only dented markets for a few months. 
Just as in the SARS contagion, stocks of airlines, hotels and casinos have taken hits. And CNBC's Maggie Fitzgerald writes that Wall Street analysts already have begun downgrading names that could suffer from cautious consumer sentiment.
Investors have been nervous, anyway, after the market's rise to all-time highs, and the coronavirus offers an excuse to sell. Make no mistake, though: How long this novel virus will take to run its course, and the disruptions it may cause along the way, is not predictable.
"While we do not know how consumers and businesses will react to the risk from coronavirus, we hope that the actual impact on people is small," Piper Sandler analysts wrote Friday. "We believe that if the coronavirus is contained and the number of infected people begins to decline, then the likely impact on spending and travel will likely be small and temporary."
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