They were down slightly, marking the public's general consensus that while the news was worrying, that there was still a good possibility of containment. If you feel like you have a better understanding of risk than the markets do, it's pretty dang cost effective to buy puts, and you can make a LOT of money with very well understood downsides.
In November 2002, when SARS was first identified S&P was at ~909, it dropped to 846 in March 2003, and was back up as the virus was shown to be under control. Obviously lots of factors in play, but we're very susceptible to hindsight bias as a species.
In November 2002, when SARS was first identified S&P was at ~909, it dropped to 846 in March 2003, and was back up as the virus was shown to be under control. Obviously lots of factors in play, but we're very susceptible to hindsight bias as a species.