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So much for the market's best day of the year. Oct. 28, on average the S&P 500's best-performing day over the past 70 years, was instead one of 2020's worst as COVID-19 concerns continued to flare up in the U.S. and Europe.
Cities such as Chicago and Newark are renewing restrictions on businesses and public gatherings amid not just record-high new caseloads in America, but rising hospitalizations and deaths as well. In Germany, restaurants and theaters will be shut down for four weeks, and other European countries are stepping up their own measures to fend off a second wave.
SEE MORE 15 Mighty Mid-Cap Stocks to Buy for 2021
Big Tech suffered from additional downward pressure, as the CEOs of Facebook (FB, -5.5%), Twitter (TWTR, -5.3%) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL, -5.5%) faced Congressional inquiries about moderating user content.
The S&P 500 did not come close to meeting its average 0.54% gain on Oct. 28, instead plunging 3.5% to 3,271.
Other action in the stock market today:
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 3.4% to 26,519.The Nasdaq Composite lost 3.7% to 11,004.
The Russell 2000, best of the four major indices Wednesday, still dropped 3.0% to 1,543.
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 Stock-index futures see big losses Wednesday, under pressure as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the U.S. and Europe, presenting a threat to the economic recovery.
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 Shares of MediaAlpha Inc. got off to a good start Wednesday on a bad day for the overall stock market, as the Los Angeles-based insurance broker went public 21.1% above the $19 initial public offering price. The stock's first trade was at $23.00 at 12:01 p.m. Eastern for 1.2 million shares. The IPO priced late Thursday right in the middle of the expected range of between $18 and $20 a share, as the company raised $118.9 million and a selling shareholder sold $56.8 million worth of shares. The stock has inched slightly lower since it opened, to trade 20.8% above the IPO price. MediaAlpha went public on a day that the Renaissance IPO ETF dropped 3.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 663 points, or 2.4%.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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The global tally for confirmed cases of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 climbed to 44 million on Wednesday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, while the death toll rose to 1.17 million. The U.S. has the highest case total at 8.8 million and deaths at 226,723. The U.S. has counted a record 500,000 new cases in the past week, the New York Times reported, even as the administration of President Donald Trump announced in a news release that it was "ENDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC," in upper case.
Brazil has the second highest death toll at 157,946 and is third by cases at 5.4 million. India is second in cases with 7.9 million, and third in deaths at 120,010 Mexico has the fourth highest death toll at 89,814 and ninth highest case tally at 901,268. The U.K has 45,455 deaths, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world, and 920,664 cases.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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