Stocks took a dramatic turn lower Wednesday afternoon, with the Nasdaq Composite falling into negative territory, after Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser, during a briefing on Wednesday for reporters, saying that the U.S. has its first confirmed case of the omicron variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. “The California and San Francisco departments of public health and the CDC have confirmed that a recent case of COVID-19 among an individual in California was caused by the omicron variant,” Fauci said. The Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
-1.83%
was down 0.1% after being up 1.8% at its Wednesday peak, which would mark its biggest turnaround since July of 2020, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The S&P 500 index
SPX,
-1.18%
was holiding onto a 0.3% gain but had been sharply higher at 4,652.94 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-1.34%
was flat at 34,466, but had touched an intraday peak at 35,004.