The S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq were each off by more than 2%, giving back most gains after Wednesday’s surge. A still-escalating coronavirus outbreak continued to fuel investor concerns.
Gold (GC=F): +$31.60 (+1.92%) to $1,674.60 per ounce
10-year Treasury (^TNX): -6.6 bps to yield 0.9260%
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12:50 p.m. Markets hit fresh lows as New York’s coronavirus cases spike
New York’s coronavirus cases have virtually doubled overnight, according to Governor Cuomo, triggering new community spread fears.
The news pushes an already addled market to the day’s troughs, all but giving back Wednesday’s rally, with the 10-yr sinking to a fresh record low of 0.899%.
12:45 p.m. ET: Oil dips as OPEC production move seen ‘too little, too late’
OPEC’s move curb crude’s (CL=F) losses was met with a collective yawn by the market, which thinks coronavirus-hit demand (and the selloff in risk assets) will keep prices low. The cartel agreed to a 1.5 million barrel per day cut.
Calling the cut “too little, too late,” Goldman Sachs analysts poked all sorts of holes in OPEC’s thinking:
While this cut agreement was larger than prior guidance - and our assumption of a 1.0 mb/d cut - it remains contingent on the approval of non-OPEC participating countries, especially Russia, which has so far expressed reticence to such a large cut...
12:25 p.m. ET: JPMorgan splits up staff as part of coronavirus response
Sales and trading staff in JPMorgan’s markets team were told in a memo that staff would be split between different offices from Monday.
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10:45 a.m. ET: Elizabeth Warren ends 2020 presidential bid
The Massachusetts senator — once considered a 2020 frontrunner and intellectual heir to progressive icon Bernie Sanders — is dropping out of the presidential race.
Warren’s antipathy toward billionaires and investor class made her second only to Sanders as one of Wall Street’s least favorite candidates. Her weak showing on Super Tuesday effectively turned the Democratic race into a two-way battle between the Vermont Senator and former Vice President Joe Biden, who is now considered a prohibitive favorite.
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10 a.m. ET: Freddie Mac 30-year mortgage rate tumbles to record low
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate declined to a record low of 3.29% for the week ending today, touching the lowest level ever reported, according to Freddie Mac.
Mortgage applications rose 10% last week over the same period last year, “and show no signs of slowing down,” Freddie Mac said in a statement.
The report comes a day after the Mortgage Bankers Association said that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 3.57% for the week ending Friday. The mortgage loan application volume during the MBA’s survey week rose 15.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis from the week prior.
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9:38 a.m. ET: Airline stocks slide as travel industry dented by outbreak
U.S. airline stocks sank shortly after market open Thursday, with fears over the coronavirus lowering demand for flights and disrupting airlines’ flight schedules globally. In a new report, the International Air Transport Association said airlines could lose as much as $113 billion in revenue worldwide in 2020, depending on the extent of the outbreak.
Shares of American Airlines were down more than 7% just after the opening bell. United Airlines’ stock was down more than 6%, and shares of Delta Airlines were off about 4.5%.
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9:33 a.m. ET: Stocks open sharply lower as coronavirus concerns linger
Here were the main moves in market shortly after the opening bell, as of 9:33 a.m. ET:
S&P 500 (^GSPC): 3,053.4, down 76.72 points or -2.45%
Dow (^DJI): 26,394.08, down 696.78 points or -2.57%
Nasdaq (^IXIC): 8,795.22, down 219.02 points or -2.38%
Crude oil (CL=F): $46.81 per barrel, +$0.03 or +0.06%
Gold (GC=F): $1,657.40 per ounce, +$14.40 or +0.88%
10-year Treasury (^TNX): yielding 0.934%, down 5.8 bps
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8:30 a.m. ET: Initial jobless claims fall slightly less than expected for week ended Feb. 29
Weekly unemployment claims fell slightly less than expected to a seasonally adjusted 216,000 for the week ended February 29. Consensus economists had expected new jobless claims to decline by 4,000 to 215,000.
Continuing unemployment claims, however, rose less than expected for the week ended February 22. These increased to 1.729 million, from the prior week’s downwardly revised 1.722 million. Consensus economists had expected continuing jobless claims to rise to 1.738 million.
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7:41 a.m. ET: Stock futures sink after California declares state of emergency over coronavirus
U.S. stock futures sank Thursday morning on the heels of a massive rally for stocks during Wednesday’s session, as volatility extended for risk assets.
The overnight dip came as California declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus outbreak, following the announcement of the state’s first confirmed death as a result of the disease. As of Thursday, California had the largest number of cases in the U.S. at more than 50, followed by Washington state with about 44 confirmed cases and 10 deaths.
Overseas, the spread of the coronavirus has continued to broaden, with Switzerland reporting its first death from the disease and concentrated countries of Italy and South Korea continuing to report more cases. Italy has closed schools until March 15, with the death toll in the country topping 100 among more than 3,000 cases, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
Here were the main moves during the pre-market session, as of 7:41 a.m. ET:
S&P 500 futures (ES=F): 3,059.75, down 55 points or -1.77%
Dow futures (YM=F): 26,521.00, down 444 points or -1.65%
Nasdaq futures (NQ=F): 8,741.5, down 155 points or -1.74%
Crude oil (CL=F): $46.93 per barrel, up $0.15 or 0.32%
Gold (GC=F): $1,653.10 per ounce, up $10.10 or 0.61%
10-year Treasury (^TNX): yielding 0.958%, down 3.4 bps
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 04: Traders work the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on March 4, 2020 in New York City. The news of Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden's delegate lead after the Super Tuesday primaries helped the market rebound and close at over 1,100 points. (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
