Stocks closed sharply lower on Wall Street Friday after a coronavirus variant from South Africa appeared to be spreading across the globe. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 905 points. The S&P 500 index fell 2.3%, its worst day since February and the Nasdaq composite had its worst drop in two months.

Travel and energy stocks are among the biggest losers, with Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian Cruises all off over 10%.

Health officials in Europe moved quickly to propose suspending air travel from southern Africa. Meanwhile cases of the variant were found in Hong Kong, Belgium and Tel Aviv as well as major South African cities like Johannesburg.

There have been other variants of the coronavirus before – the delta variant devastated much of the US throughout the summer – but early data on this variant appears to show it’s more easily transmissible than other variants.

The New York Stock Exchange closed early at 1 p.m. Eastern.

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