By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 26th, 2024
Dow Jones started the day with losing 1,058 points, or 4.7%. The S&P 500 was down 4% and the Nasdaq was 3.87% lower. Alphabet (GOOGL) stock is in the red as well.
Friday’s trading started with Wall Street in red, with tech stocks going south. For instance, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) stock started the trading session at $1,127.47. At the moment of writing, Alphabet stock makes up $1,120.00 per share. It means that now GOOGL stock is falling nearly 4% if compared with the previous closing.
Other stocks are also showing not the best performance. United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: UAL), Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE: DAL), American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ: AAL) tanked between 6% and 9%, Boeing Co (NYSE: BA) lost 11% soon after jumping by 90% this week.
Stock market indices have also climbed down at the opening, after showing the best three-day run in a century. At the opening today, Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped to 21,898.47. At 10:29 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 916.19 points from the previous close, or 4.06%, at 21,635.98. The S&P 500 was down 96.72 points, or 3.68%, at 2,533.35. The Nasdaq Composite was also down 278.50 points, or 3.57%, at 7,519.04.
At the moment of writing, Dow is down 1,058 points, or 4.7%. The S&P 500 is down 4% and the Nasdaq is 3.87% lower.
U.S. Surpasses China in Confirmed Coronavirus Cases
The market today reflects growing fears about the coronavirus pandemic and the economic disaster it has caused. As the U.S. has already surpassed China in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, the country may become the new epicenter of the virus.
Eddie Perkin, chief equity investment officer at Eaton Vance in Boston, said:
“We’re not out of the woods yet on the health or economic crisis. It would seem odd to me if the markets fully stabilize before we get more clarity on the health front.”
Neil Wilson, the chief market analyst for Markets.com in London, stated:
“Big questions are starting to be answered, like how bad is the spread of infections (and) how bad is the economic damage. That is a recovery narrative, not panic, but if a recovery is not as swift as hoped, equity markets will suffer another hit.”
In the U.S., the coronavirus has already led to a record level of unemployment. In California only, there appeared 1 million unemployment claims in less than two weeks. To support Americans, the Senate passed a $2 trillion stimulus package bill. Under the bill, individuals who earn $75,000 in adjusted gross income or less will get direct payments of $1,200 each, with married couples earning up to $150,000 receiving $2,400 and an additional $500 per each child. The payment will scale down by income, phasing out entirely at $99,000 for singles and $198,000 for couples without children. In addition, the bill will provide a $130 billion funding for hospitals and $150 billion for state and local governments. All these payments are the U.S. government’s response to coronavirus.