Ebola infecting global market, airlines hardest hit

New York

EBOLA has gone from blip to bogey on the market radar.

Concern about the deadly disease has started to affect investor psychology, contributing to a 17 per cent decline in airline stocks and spurring intermittent plunges in broader averages. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 1.2 per cent in an hour on Oct 13 following reports that plane passengers in Boston were hospitalised with flu-like symptoms.

Investors struggling to assess global growth and the end of Federal Reserve bond buying have been blindsided with a threat that defies quantification, said Howard Ward, chief investment officer for growth equities at Rye, New York-based Gamco Investors Inc, which ov…