Stocks tumble as Covid-19 cases surge and stimulus is nowhere to be found
US stocks sank at the opening bell in New York, and the selloff gathered pace as the session went on.
In the late morning, the Dow (INDU) was down nearly 600 points, or 2.1.%. The S&P 500 (SPX) — the broadest measure of the US stock market — fell 1.7%.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (COMP), which had briefly bounced back from its lows, dropped 1.2%.
There’s a lot for investors to grapple with: The election is only eight days away, there’s still no new stimulus package and the first look at how the economy fared in the third quarter will be reported on Thursday. Big Tech companies will report earnings this week as well, including Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOGL), Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR).
While earnings will inject volatility in the tech sector, “on a more macro level, ongoing US stalemate over US fiscal stimulus and the rapidly spreading Covid-19 is going to determine the direction for the wider markets,” said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at Think Markets, in a note.
The ever-slimming chance of a new stimulus package before next week’s election isn’t a new factor for the market. And yet, it has been a big driver of the action over the past weeks, even as nothing has really changed as a result of recent negotiations. It shows just how important the recovery is for the market.
On top of that, Covid-19 infections are rising rapidly across Europe, where governments have brought back restrictions to stave off the spreading once again.
All of this is creating a cocktail of uncertainty that the market doesn’t like one bit, and Wall Street opened lower.
European markets were also in the red across the board.