

Please try another search
By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- Wall Street took another pummelling at the open on Friday as markets faced up to the prospect of a sharp dip in the Chinese economy due to the coronavirus – one that is likely to be felt around the world in the form of lower commodity demand and disrupted supply chains.
While the figures so far suggest that the disease will be less lethal than the SARS epidemic in 2003, total confirmed cases already top those of SARS, while China’s countermeasures – which include the extension of New Year holidays by another week for over two-thirds of the country’s factories – are sure to be felt across the globe, given that China’s share of the world economy has more than quadrupled since SARS.
By 10:24 AM ET (1524 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 280 points or 1.0%, while the S&P 500 was down 0.7% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.5%.
The Dow was on course for a weekly loss of some 1.3%, after disappointing earnings from the country’s two biggest oil and gas companies that hinted again at weakness in the broader economy.
Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) stock fell 3.2% and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) fell 3.3%, after the former announced earnings that suffered from falling margins for refined products and chemicals.
Chevron, meanwhile, became the second major in as many days to make big writedowns on projects that have been made uneconomic. The $10.4 billion in writedowns made the company swing to a big loss in the quarter, albeit not as big as some had feared.
U.S. crude futures fell another 0.6% to $51.92 a barrel on the prospect of ever-greater demand destruction as more airlines canceled flights to China and the broader outlook for the transport sector darkened.
The broad weakness in the market overshadowed a 9.4% surge by Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) – the biggest intraday rise in market cap in history according to Bloomberg – after it detailed the handsome payoff over the holiday period from investments into one-day delivery that had burdened the previous quarter’s earnings.
Elsewhere, IBM (NYSE:IBM) stock rose 4.6% after company said late on Thursday that long-serving CEO Ginni Rometty will step down, having finally broken a five-year streak of falling revenue in the last quarter of 2019.
The biggest gainer of note, however, was truckmaker Navistar, which rose 54% after Volkswagen’s truck unit Traton – which was spun off last year – offered $2.9 billion for the company.
Elsewhere, gold futures fell 0.1% despite the general surge in risk aversion, while copper futures fell to their lowest in over three years at $2.51 a pound.
By Gina Lee Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were mostly down on Thursday morning. Gains remained modest, with the U.S. Federal Reserve striking a less hawkish note in the...
By Andrew Galbraith SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Asian share markets slipped on Thursday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's early May meeting showed a majority backing...
(Reuters) - Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd said on Thursday it needs to "rebalance" capacity and airfares to cover the cost of surging fuel prices, cutting its domestic capacity...
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
I feel that this comment is:
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.