It was another wild day on Wall Street as the major indexes started strong but swung deep into the red while U.S. President Donald Trump announced the U.S.-Mexico border will be closed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, plus more in today’s Closing Bell on Money & Markets.

The Top Story

Trump announced all nonessential travel through the U.S.-Mexico border will cease starting tonight at midnight.

“As we did with Canada, we’re also working with Mexico to implement new rules at our ports of entry to suspend nonessential travel,” Trump said, according to USA Today. “These new rules and procedures will not impede lawful trade and commerce.”

Travel for medical purposes, to visit educational facilities or for emergency response will not be affected, according to Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.

“Essential activities will not be impacted. We will continue to maintain a strong and secure economic supply chain across our borders,” Wolf said.

In other coronavirus quarantine news, New York state announced a “stay at home order” for all nonessential workers as an attempt to stem the spread of COVID-19 in what has become a hotbed for the virus with more than 7,800 confirmed cases.

Investors are growing anxious as the Senate is still drafting a coronavirus stimulus package that may cost more than $1 trillion, offering direct cash aid to Americans.

“The bottom line here is the market is clearly actively anticipating the fiscal stimulus plan,” LPL Financial strategist Ryan Detrick told Reuters. “It’s almost like we’re going to continue to be in these volatile swings until we get a little more clarity on how large that plan is.”

Stocks pared early gains and started to sink rapidly in afternoon trading as oil fell sharply after strong early gains.

Markets also experienced a “quadruple witching” phenomenon Friday as investors dumped futures and options contracts before expiration, which only caused indexes to sink further.

The Dow fell 913 points, or 4.6 by market close. The S&P 500 lost another 4.3% and the Nasdaq dipped 3.8%.

Stock Market Update: Closing Bell*

S&P 500: 2,304 (-4.3%)
DOW: 19,173 (-4.6%)
NASDAQ: 6,879 (-3.8%)
GOLD: $1,489 (+0.7%)
BITCOIN: $6,104.54 (-0.9%)
U.S. 10-YEAR YIELD: 0.876% (-0.253)

*- as of 4:13 p.m.

A Big Win

In this morning’s Opening Bell we talked about how business communications application Slack Technologies Inc. (NYSE: WORK) was in a nice position as more companies elect to work from home amid the coronavirus outbreak. Slack stock was up 1.5% around 3:18 p.m. EDT.

Golden Nuggets

Gold managed to stay positive after rising as much as 3.1% Friday, thanks to central bank action that stopped investors from flocking to cash.

Spot gold was up 0.7% to $1,482 at 3:18 p.m. EDT, while gold futures were trading 0.3% higher.

“Finally gold starting to stabilize here. As we are seeing monetary stimulus hit the market and it is providing little bit of bounce not just in gold also in equities,” OANDA analyst Edward Moya said, according to Reuters.

Silver was trading 2.4% higher around 3:18 p.m. EDT, and platinum was up 3%. Palladium struggled to gain traction, trading 5.4% lower.

Today’s Big Winners:

(as of 3:26 p.m. EDT)

MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) +21.4%

Carnival Corp. (NYSE:CCL) +20.6%

Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) +17.4%

United Airlines Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: UAL) +17%

Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) +12%

Today’s Big Losers:

(as of 3:26 p.m. EDT)

Resmed Inc. (NYSE: RMD) -15%

Loews Corp. (NYSE: L) -13.2%

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN) -8.9%

O’Reilly Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: ORLY) -8.5%

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) -7.5%

Check back for the most important news and numbers each day after the Closing Bell, only on Money & Markets.