The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 18,591.93 on Monday with a loss of 582.05 points or -3.04%. The S&P 500 closed at 2,237.40 for a loss of 67.52 points or -2.93%. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 6,860.67 for a loss of 18.84 points or -0.27%. The VIX Volatility Index was lower at 61.78 for a loss of 4.26 points or -6.45%.
Monday’s market movers
U.S. indexes ended lower Monday. Coronavirus effects on the U.S. economy continued to cause stock selling. Estimates are expecting unemployment claims to rise to 30%. Jeff Bezos is asking laid off workers to work for Amazon (AMZN, Financial) as the company ramps up deliveries and wages. Amazon also announced deliveries of coronavirus kits in Seattle.
In New York, the government will begin to document testing of off-label drugs on Tuesday, including chloroquine and h-chloroquine, which have shown success in curing coronavirus patients in six days. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also said Tuesday that pot is on track for legalization in New York, which sent the POTX exchange-traded fund higher (up approximately 2%).
The Federal Reserve announced more support. It is now becoming more widely used as a lender for both commercial and federal banks. The Fed said on Tuesday it would implement unlimited quantitative easing with an allocation of $375 billion in Treasury securities and $250 billion in mortgage securities for this week.
The Trump administration partnered with IBM (IBM, Financial) for supercomputers to be used in coronavirus analysis. The number of infections in the U.S. increased to almost 40,000 with New York reporting the most at almost 21,000. Congress has yet to come to any agreement on a stimulus bill that would potentially send aid checks to Americans.
Economic reports affecting market trading included the following:
- The Chicago Fed National Activity Index increased to 0.16 in February from -0.33.
- The Treasury held auctions for three-month bills at a rate of 0.00% and six-month bills at a rate of 0.08%. The 10-year Treasury note ended the day trading at a yield of approximately 0.76%.
In the S&P 500, utilities, energy and real estate led losses. In the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the following stocks led losses and gains:
- United Technologies (UTX, Financial) -10.35%
- Chevron (CVX, Financial) -9.32%
- Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Financial) -8.17%
- Nike (NKE, Financial) -8.11%
- Boeing (BA, Financial) +11.57%
- Intel (INTC, Financial) +5.99%
- Home Depot (HD, Financial) +5.88%
Small-cap stocks
In small caps, the Russell 2000 closed at 997.76 for a loss of 16.13 points or -1.59%. The S&P 600 closed at 595.67 for a loss of 8.92 points or -1.48%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Growth Index closed at 6,647.02 for a loss of 60.64 points or -0.90%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Value Index closed at 5,049.48 for a loss of 230.82 points or -4.37%.
Other notable indexes
Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 1,218.55 for a loss of 40.18 points or -3.19%; the S&P 100 at 1,040.00 for a loss of 25.65 points or -2.41%; the Nasdaq 100 at 7,006.92 for a gain of 12.63 points or 0.18%; the Russell 3000 at 1,288.04 for a loss of 36.76 points or -2.77%; the Russell 1000 at 1,224.45 for a loss of 36.24 points or -2.87%; the Wilshire 5000 at 22,523.41 for a loss of 646.76 points or -2.79%; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index at 445.18 for a loss of 24.44 points or -5.20%.
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