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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

US Stocks End Rollercoaster Day Up 4.8%

The day after their sharpest drop since the 2008 financial crisis, the U.S. stock market climbed back considerably on Tuesday, mitigating for the time being concerns about the coronavirus outbreak’s toll on the nation’s economy.

MANHATTAN (CN) — The day after their sharpest drop since the 2008 financial crisis, the U.S. stock market climbed back considerably on Tuesday, mitigating for the time being concerns about the coronavirus outbreak’s toll on the nation’s economy.

Early on Monday morning, the stock market plunged by 7%, triggering an automatic market-wide “circuit breaker” that halted trading for 15 minutes. Though the market undoubtedly rebounded Tuesday the rollercoaster ride throughout the day underlined the continuing volatility on Wall Street.

Within minutes of the morning bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered nearly 1,000 of the more than 1,600 points that it lost yesterday, only to lose most of the gains by midday.

The Dow rose again in the final hours of trading, with a 4.8% rise to close at 25,018.

The S&P 500 kept its gains, recouping more than half the previous day’s losses, the New York Times reported.

As the trading week began, investors sold based in part on fears of how the virus will impact supply chains and consumer spending.

At a White House press conference Tuesday afternoon, President Donald Trump announced plans to help airlines and cruise companies battered by the coronavirus scare, boosting equities in both those hard-hit industries.

“We want to protect our shipping industry, our cruise industry,” Trump told reporters. “We want to protect our airlines, very important.”

Those words may have been wind on the wings of American Airlines and United Airlines, which lifted off more than 12%.

Cruise line giant Carnival sailed upward 10.5%

Oil prices dropped on Monday by 30% – the largest decline in two decades – because of a price war between Saudi Arabia and other crude oil producing countries, particularly Russia.

Saudi oil producers wanted to raise oil prices, expecting travel to decrease dramatically in the coming weeks as the virus continues to spread, but Russia walked away from negotiations.

The Washington Post reported that the White House is likely to push for a fracked oil bailout, likely in the form of low-interest loans, to shale producers reeling from the international energy shock. One of the hardest hit companies was Continental Resources, founded by billionaire Trump supporter Harold Hamm, the paper reported.

Hamm, whose company on Tuesday recovered about 8% of the $2 billion that it lost on Monday, told the paper that he reached out to the administration but did not make “direct” contact.

Other petroleum giants surged: Exxon Mobil gained 2.7%, and Chevron jumped 5.3%.

Categories / Economy, Financial

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