Stocks dropped on Wall Street Friday following the latest grim reading on the toll that the coronavirus is having on jobs as the economy grinds to a halt.
Investors and economists expect that far worse data is on the way, but for now the market’s bottom line has been holding despite a worsening global toll from the virus with no signs of slowing.
Many businesses have shut down in an attempt to slow the spread of the outbreak. The market losses accelerated after New York announced its biggest daily jump yet in deaths.
Losses began mildly Friday but became more steep as the hours passed.
The S&P 500 fell 1.5%, capping its third down week in the last four.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 360.91 or 1.69% to 21,052.53.
The NASDAQ composite index closed down 114.23 or 1.53% to 7.373.08.
The S&P 500 closed down 38.25 or 1.51% to 2,488.65.
Markets were in the red from the opening bell Friday after the U.S. government said employers cut 701,000 jobs in March as they shut down or sharply curtailed business due to the coronavirus outbreak.
European markets were lower after losses in most of Asia shortly after the report was released around 8:30 a.m.
The report comes a day after the government said a record 6.6 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week. The S&P 500 has fallen less than 1% so far this week, but is down 25% from the record it set back on Feb. 19.
Accelerating layoffs brought the number of Americans applying for jobless benefits to a record 10 million in just the last two weeks, an unprecedented level that pointed toward double-digit unemployment and prompted calls for another tranche of federal rescue aid to avoid a second Great Depression.
Credit: f.duckett
Credit: f.duckett
The U.S. Labor Department report was double the record 3.3 million from the previous week and far more than what most economists were expecting.
That was just the latest evidence of how fast and how far the economic damage from the coronavirus is spreading across the country. Separate reports this week showed car sales in the U.S. plunged 39% in March, manufacturing fell back into recession, and trade showed early signs of faltering.
The worse may be yet to come as the losses so far may not show the full scale of the layoffs sweeping the country.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 in London sank 0.9% to 5,431 and Frankfurt's DAX was flat at 9,574. The CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.8% to 4,187.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.6% to 2,763.99 and Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 1.5 points to 17,820.19. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 0.2% to 23,236.11 after falling as much as 0.8% earlier.
The Kospi in Seoul ended unchanged at 1,725.44 after being down 0.6%. Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 declined 1.7% to 5,067.50 and India's Sensex lost 1.9% to 27,727.19.
The price of oil continued higher after President Donald Trump said on Twitter he expected major oil producers Saudi Arabia and Russia to back away from their price-cutting war. But by midday, most Asian markets had retreated again.
Benchmark U.S. crude added $3.04 to $28.36 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained $4.92 to $34.86 per barrel in London.
Markets usually welcome lower energy costs for companies and consumers. But the abrupt plunge to below $20 this week from $60 at the start of the year triggered fears heavily indebted producers might default, undermining credit markets.
On Thursday, U.S. crude surged $5.01, or almost 25%, to $25.32 per barrel following Trump's comments. The Kremlin denied President Vladimir Putin had talked with the prince but Saudi Arabia called for a meeting of major producers including Russia.
Traders expect more volatility in financial markets until numbers of new coronavirus cases begin to decline, which forecasters say might be weeks away.
The number of confirmed cases worldwide has topped 1 million, led by the United States with more than 236,000 and growing, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
More than 51,000 have died, but more than 208,000 have recovered.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
The dollar edged up to 108.51 yen from Thursday's 107.90 yen. The euro declined to $1.0785 from $1.0856.
— ArLuther Lee contributed to this report for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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