Stock market news live: Stocks fall after 3-day win streak, sentiment tumbles – Yahoo Money

Stock News

Posted on March 27, 2020

Stocks fell Friday, giving back some gains after Thursday’s session saw each of the S&P 500 and Dow climb more than 6%. A new report showed consumer sentiment tumbled by the most since the financial crisis in March.

Losses on the three major indices Friday tracked declines in European equities, after EU member countries failed to agree on a concrete plan to address the coronavirus outbreak in the region.

Countries including Italy, Spain and France – those hit hardest by the outbreak – had called for the joint issuance of so-called “coronabonds” to help raise funds through issuance of shared European debt, but other member countries struck down the relief move during last night’s discussions. An announcement that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson tested positive for COVID-19 also weighed on risk assets.

During the regular session Thursday, stocks had ended higher for a third straight day as investors hoped a $2 trillion relief package passed by the U.S. Senate would help offset some of the domestic economic damage dealt by the coronavirus outbreak. It was the first time the S&P 500 posted three consecutive sessions of advances since mid-February.

The House of Representatives is set to vote on the coronavirus economic relief package Friday.

Stocks’ gains during Thursday’s session, which came even after the U.S. Labor Department reported the largest number of new weekly unemployment claims on record, sent the Dow 1,351 points higher to settle above the 22,500 level – more than 20% above its recent closing low from March 23. Those gains proved ephemeral during trading Friday, however, as the 30-stock index sank more than 3%, or 700 points, during intraday trading.

While policymakers around the world have stepped up their efforts to mitigate the economic blow from the virus, the pandemic itself has showed few signs of abating outside of China. Italy, one of the epicenters for the outbreak, reported its largest jump in new cases in the last five days, with new cases Thursday rising by 6,153.

Coronavirus around the world, as of the morning of Friday, March 27

Global cases of the coronavirus topped 549,000 as of Friday morning, including 86,000 in the U.S, according to Johns Hopkins data. At that level, the number of cases in the U.S. topped those in China and Italy for the first time, and the domestic death toll from the outbreak surpassed 1,100.

As states across the country remain in or go into lock-down, President Donald Trump sent a letter to governors Thursday suggesting the White House was seeking to create guidelines for individual counties classified as either high, medium or low risk for the outbreak to expand further. Trump has said he wants the country to widely reopen businesses by Easter in mid-April, although health officials have suggested lifting stay-in-place orders by that time could be premature as the coronavirus case count continues to climb.

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11:36 a.m. ET: Stocks hold lower as Energy, Industrials sectors fall

The three major indices remained lower as the trading session rolled along. The Dow’s losses topped 700 points, led by declines in shares of Boeing and JPMorgan. The S&P 500 was dragged lower by the Energy and Industrials sectors.

Here were the main moves in markets, as of 11:36 a.m. ET:

S&P 500 (^GSPC): -76.59 points (-2.91%) to 2,553.48
Dow (^DJI): -726.26 points (-3.22%) to 21,825.91
Nasdaq (^IXIC): -222.39 points (-2.82%) to 7,577.48

Crude (CL=F): -$1.20 (-5.31%) to $21.40 a barrel
Gold (GC=F): -$23.30 (-1.41%) to $1,627.90 per ounce
10-year Treasury (^TNX): -6.4 bps to yield 0.744%

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10:00 a.m. ET: Consumer sentiment plummets by the most since 2008 in March

Consumer sentiment plunged in March by the most since October 2008 as the coronavirus outbreak tore through the domestic economy, according to the University of Michigan’s closely watched Survey of Consumers.

The headline sentiment index sank 11.9 points in March from February, the fourth largest single-month drop in almost 50 years. This brought the index down to 89.1, its lowest level since October 2016.

Subindices tracking consumers’ assessments of current conditions and expectations for the future also fell in March.

Here’s what Richard Curtin, Surveys of Consumers chief economist, said in a statement about the print:

“The extent of additional declines in April will depend on the success in curtailing the spread of the virus and how quickly households receive funds to relieve their financial hardships. Mitigating the negative impacts on health and finances may curb rising pessimism, but it will not produce optimism. There is no silver bullet that could end the pandemic as suddenly as the military victory that ended the Gulf war. To avoid an extended recession, economic policies must quickly adapt to a new era that will reorder the spending and saving priorities of consumers as well as the relative roles of the public and private sectors in the U.S. economy.”

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9:36 a.m. ET: Dow drops 3%, pacing toward first decline in four sessions

Stocks opened lower Friday morning and were on track to snap a three-session winning streak.

Here were the main moves in the market, as of 9:36 ET:

S&P 500 (^GSPC): -83.41 points (-3.17%) to 2,546.66
Dow (^DJI): -805.61 points (-3.57%) to 21,746.55
Nasdaq (^IXIC): -223.68 points (-2.87%) to 7,573.86

Crude (CL=F): -$1.01 (-4.47%) to $21.59 a barrel
Gold (GC=F): -$21.90 (-1.33%) to $1,629.30 per ounce
10-year Treasury (^TNX): -7 bps to yield 0.738%

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8:30 a.m. ET: Personal spending rises 0.2% in February, matching expectations

U.S. personal spending rose 0.2% in February, matching consensus economist expectations and January’s pace of gains. Meanwhile, personal income rose 0.6%, outpacing the 0.4% rise expected.

Core personal consumption expenditures rose 0.2% month on month in February, also meeting expectations and January’s gains. Over last year, core PCE – the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge – rose 1.8%, or slightly faster than the 1.7% gain expected and seen in January.

The Commerce Department’s February measures of personal spending, income and PCE capture the period before the escalation of the coronavirus in the U.S.

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6:56 a.m. ET Friday: Stock futures edge up as overnight session kicks off

Stock futures were lower Friday morning as investors weighed the House of Representative’s planned vote on a $2 trillion stimulus package against a rising coronavirus case count in the U.S., where the outbreak has now infected more people than in Italy and China.

Here were the main moves in markets, as of 6:56 a.m. ET:

S&P 500 futures (ES=F): down 1.86%, or 48.5 points to 2,559.5
Dow futures (YM=F): down 1.88% or 421 points to 21,927.00
Nasdaq futures (NQ=F):down 1.68% or 131.75 points to 7,712.25
Crude (CL=F): +0.13% to $22.73 a barrel
Gold (GC=F): -$23.00 (-1.39%) to $1,628.20 per ounce
10-year Treasury (^TNX): -4.3 bps to yield 0.765%

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6:01 p.m. ET Thursday: Stock futures edge up as overnight session kicks off

Futures for each of the three major indices were slightly higher Thursday evening as Congress closed in on passing a $2 trillion economic relief package.

Here were the main moves in markets, as of 6:01 p.m. ET: