It looks like COVID-19 seeks to bring chaos everywhere, including stock markets. Amid an increase in coronavirus incidences and hospitalizations, as well as a possible resumption of quarantines and restrictive measures, the US leading stock indices collapsed on Thursday.
Investors started buying less risky assets again, such as gold and US government bonds. In other words, the market participants are nervous again.
On Wednesday, the number of hospitalizations of people infected with the coronavirus hit a record daily level since the beginning of the pandemic. More than 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 are reported every day. Health experts are confident that the vaccine could defeat the virus, but how soon it will appear remains under question.
Today, the government has only one way to stop the spread of the virus - to reintroduce quarantine. However, traders fear that such actions may negatively affect the already weak economy. They are reviewing their portfolios, assessing whether companies are able to cope with new restrictive measures. Despite these alarming conditions, the S&P 500 has grown by more than 8% since late October.
The S&P 500 on Thursday fell by 1% to 3,537.01. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.1% to trade at 2,9080.17. The Nasdaq Composite decreased by 0.7% to 11,709.59.
The biggest losses in shares' prices have companies in the tourism sector and banks. Thus, shares of United Airlines Holdings Inc. declined by 4.3%, while shares of Carnival Corp decreased by 7.9%. Shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. lost more than 1% in price.
At the same time, shares of Southwest Airlines Co. lost 3% as well. The shares' price of the American battery manufacturer Energizer Holdings Inc. fell by 14.8%.
Meanwhile, the securities of the American Jaws Acquisition Corp. jumped in price by 15.8%. The reason for this growth was the merger of the company with the network of medical centers for the elderly Cano Health Llc. The deal value is $4.4 billion.
There is one more positive piece of news. The number of initial jobless claims in the United States hit its lowest level since March, but still is rather high. It looks like Americans are finding jobs despite the continuing rise in the incidence of Covid-19.
As long as the situation in the foreign exchange and stock markets is volatile, gold prices will not change their trend. Gold futures rose by 0.6% to trade at $1,872.60 per troy ounce.
The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 lost 0.9%.
Most Asian indices pulled back slightly on Thursday. China's Shanghai Composite slid by 0.1%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped by 0.3%.
