Why These Restaurant Stocks Were Slammed on Thursday
Shares of BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ: BJRI), Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI), and Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) -- all restaurant stocks -- fell sharply on Thursday. By the time the market closed, the three stocks were down 8.8%, 7.2%, and 10.9%, respectively.
The beating these three stocks took comes amid a broader market sell-off over the past week. The market was hit hard yet again on Thursday. The S&P 500 shed 4.4% during the trading day, bringing the market index's total decline over the past week to nearly 12%.
However, the declines for BJ's, Darden, and Chipotle stocks on Thursday represent an outsize pullback compared to the market. This likely reflects concerns about how U.S. restaurant traffic could be negatively impacted in the case of a local outbreak of the virus. On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the first coronavirus case in the U.S. in which the source of the infection is unknown, making this the first "community spread" of the virus in the U.S. Since the infected person's exposure to the virus is unknown, this means the coronavirus may already be spreading in the U.S. in unknown areas.
Source Fool.com
