US markets end deeply in red on Friday

21 Mar 2020 Evaluate

The US markets ended deeply in red on Friday, with losses of around four percent, as panic over the coronavirus outbreak refused to abate, amid the acceleration of the global death toll. Investors failed to get any sense of relief by the government’s response to limit the economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic, whose severity and duration is unclear, and an early Friday rally faded fast. Besides, President Trump said that interest on student loans would be waived temporarily and earlier, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the U.S. tax filing day in the US would be moved to July 15, extending the deadline from April 15. As of Friday, nearly 260,000 coronavirus cases had been confirmed around the globe. The World Health Organization noted that it took more than three months to reach 100,000 cases worldwide - but only 12 days to log the next 100,000.

On the economic data front, the National Association of Realtors said existing home sales jumped 6.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.77 million units last month, the highest level since February 2007. The data reflected contracts signed in January and early February, before the highly contagious virus swept through the country, severely disrupting economic activity. Street had forecast existing home sales would rise 0.7% to a rate of 5.50 million units in February. Existing home sales, which make up about 90% of US home sales, accelerated 7.2% on a year-on-year basis in February.

Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 913.21 points or 4.55 percent to 19,173.98, Nasdaq declined 271.06 points or 3.79 percent to 6,879.52 and S&P 500 was down by 104.47 points or 4.34 percent to 2,304.92.

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