Weekly jobless claims soared past Wall Street's expectations
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures are sliding toward even more steep losses today, following the index's first close below 20,000 in over three years last night. Futures on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) are also exploring even more lows this morning, while the 10-year Treasury yield continues to surge. The first batch of COVID-19-influenced economic data is also weighing on investors; weekly jobless claims showed 281,000 people filed for unemployment last week, hurtling past the 220,000 estimates.
Meanwhile, Wall Street is keeping tabs on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which will be closing its floor temporarily after the novel coronavirus was found in two people during testing last week. All-electronic trading will start on Monday, March 23.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- Behind Boeing's request for a big government bailout.
- 2 auto stocks running low on gas amid heightened COVID-19 safety measures.
- Plus, 2 stocks moving on coronavirus updates; and Darden steps into the earnings confessional.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw 917,368 call contracts traded on Wednesday, compared to 908,914 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio rose to 0.98, and the 21-day moving average climbed to 0.81.
- Drugmaker AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) is down 2.9% after Raymond James said it wasn't surprised by the company's negative results for its coronavirus treatment. The therapy was tested on 99 Chinese patients, who fared no better than those who received standard care. The drug stock is down 19.7% in 2020.
- Applied DNA Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:APDN), on the other hand, is up 2% after the chemicals specialist said the design of its SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic kit is complete. The company added that it plans on selling the kit -- which detects SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 -- for "research use only." APDN has doubled in the last seven days.
- Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) is down 4.9% this morning after the company posted fiscal third-quarter earnings and revenue that beat analysts' estimates, but withdrew its 2020 forecast and suspended its quarterly cash dividend amid uncertainty surrounding the current pandemic. DRI hit a 10-year low of $26.15 yesterday, and is down 69% year-over-year.
- Today's economic agenda will feature February's leading economic indicators and the Philly Fed business outlook survey. Accenture (ACN), Lennar (LEN), and The Children's Place (PLCE) will all step into the earnings confessional.
Europe Stocks Sink Despite Central Bank Boost
Markets in Asia were pummeled today. South Korea's Kospi paced the region with an 8.4% drop, triggering a "limit down" circuit breaker in earlier trading. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 2.6%, while China's Shanghai Composite lost 1%. Japan's Nikkei also gave back 1%, with SoftBank recording its largest one-day drop on record.
Over in Europe, stocks are lower after giving back early-morning gains. The European Central Bank (ECB) announced the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme, a 750 euro bond-buying measure to help stimulate the regional economies rocked by COVID-19. Nevertheless, London's FTSE 100 is off by 2%, the French CAC 40 is 0.6% lower, at last check. The German DAX is down 1.1%, with business sentiment falling to its lowest point since 2009.