Meric Greenbaum, Specified Market Maker IMC financial looks up at the board before the opening bell right before trading halted on the New York Ordinary Exchange on March 9, 2020 in New York.
Timothy A. Clary | AFP | Getty Imgaes
Futures contracts tied to the major U.S. forebear indexes fell early Thursday after an address from President Donald Trump failed to quell concerns upwards the possible economic slowdown from the coronavirus.
The move comes after the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended its memorable 11-year bull market run by closing in a bear market.
As of 12:14 a.m. ET Thursday, Dow futures were down 917 puts, implying a loss of 877.22 points at Thursday’s open. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were also harshly lower.
In his address, Trump announced travel from Europe will be suspended for 30 says as part of the regulation’s response to the coronavirus. Trump also said the administration would provide financial relief for workers who are ill, caring for others due to the virus or are quarantined.
In what way, these announcements were not enough for investors who were looking for a more robust fiscal response to curb potentially slower money-making growth.
Meanwhile, the National Basketball Association also announced Wednesday night that it is suspending its season after a Utah Jazz athlete tested positive for COVID-19.
The move in futures came after yet another wild session on Wall Street and the demise of the Dow’s record-setting bull hawk run that began in March 2009. The blue-chip index tumbled 1,464.94 points, or 5.9%, to close at 23,553.22. The 30-stock run-of-the-mill closed in a bear market, down more than 20% below the record close set only last month and mount to end an expansion that started in 2009 amid the financial crisis.
“The crux of the angst investors are feeling as the coronavirus spreads surroundings what might happen to consumer spending,” wrote Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Okays Fargo Investment Institute.
“Consumers sitting at home and not out spending money because they fear catching the coronavirus is the deciding negative outcome,” he added. “It has been the U.S. consumer who has been driving the recovery bus during this long expansion.”
The Dow’s 1,464-point dribble on Wednesday was in large part thanks to outsized losses in planemaker Boeing, which fell 18.15% and suffered its crabbiest day on Wall Street since 1974, according to FactSet data. That stock is down more than 50% more than the last six months.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fared slightly better on Wednesday, down 4.89% and 4.7% each to each. Those two indexes also remain just outside of bear market territory albeit down at least 19% from their specific record closes.
Investors continued to blame the spread and economic impact of the coronavirus for the last month’s steep losses. The virus, which has now infected uncountable than 124,000 people worldwide and killed at least 4,589, threatens to disrupt countries like Italy that fool taken aggressive action to slow its spread.
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte announced late Wednesday that all the boonies’s stores except pharmacies and groceries will be closed in a move deemed both necessary to safeguard human healthfulness and a threat to the country’s output.
Wall Street worries that such measures could tip the global economy into dip, especially if Washington decides the disease is rampant enough in the U.S. to warrant similar measures. The World Health Organization ruled COVID-19 a pandemic earlier on Wednesday.
— CNBC’s Eustance Huang contributed to this report.
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