US markets end higher on Thursday

20 Mar 2020 Evaluate

The US markets ended higher on Thursday erasing steep losses from earlier in the day as strong gains in big-tech shares led to a sharp turnaround. Some support came in as trump said he would not oppose barring companies from conducting buybacks if they receive federal assistance during the pandemic. Meanwhile, central banks around the world continue to offer major supportive measures to global financial markets. The European Central Bank announced a new Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program that will deploy 750 billion euro ($819 billion) to purchase securities to help support the European economy. The central bank said purchases will be conducted until the end of 2020 and include a variety of assets including government debt.

The ECB’s action follows similar initiatives by the Federal Reserve. The Fed announced earlier this month plans to pump an additional $1 trillion into the US economy through asset purchases and cut the federal funds rate to zero. The Fed also said it will create a backstop for prime money market funds. However, Coronavirus cases around the world top 236,000. In the US alone, more than 9,790 cases have been confirmed along with over 150 deaths.

Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 188.27 points or 0.95 percent to 20,087.19, Nasdaq rose 160.73 points or 2.3 percent to 7,150.58 and S&P 500 was up by 11.29 points or 0.47 percent to 2,409.39.

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