US markets end mostly lower amid surge in coronavirus infections

20 Jun 2020 Evaluate

The US markets gave up early gains and ended mostly lower on Friday. Markets made firm start on optimism about economic recovery in the wake of recent strong data on employment and retail sales. But, reports showing a surge in coronavirus infections in several states in America and the World Health Organization's warning that the pandemic is ‘accelerating and the world is in a new and dangerous phase’ unsettled the markets. The Trump administration has declared there will not be another shutdown, but Apple Inc. (AAPL) announced that it is temporarily shuttering stores again in US states where the novel coronavirus cases have been spiking in recent weeks. Texas and Arizona reported record spikes in new cases on Friday. Florida, California, South Carolina and North Carolina were among the other states to report a jump in new cases of virus infections.

The market also reacted to Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren's remarks that the US economy may not see a fast recovery and that it would need more support from the Fed and Congress. He made these comments in a webcast to the Providence Chamber of Commerce. Rosengren said ‘Unemployment remains very high, and because of the continued community spread of the disease and the acceleration of new cases in many states, I expect the economic rebound in the second half of the year to be less than was hoped for at the outset of the pandemic’. On the economic data front, the US current-account deficit, a measure of the nation’s debt to other countries, slipped 0.1% in the first quarter. The current-account deficit fell to $104.2 billion from a revised $104.3 billion in the 2019 fourth quarter. The small decline reflected a lower trade deficit in goods.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 208.64 points or 0.8 percent to 25,871.46 and S&P 500 dropped 17.6 points or 0.56 percent to 3,097.74, while Nasdaq was up by 3.07 points or 0.03 percent 9,946.12.

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