Wall Street falls as coronavirus hurts US payrolls

The coronavirus has dealt another blow to the United States economy. Wall Street’s main indexes fell on Friday, and fears of a deep economic slowdown continue to grow. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.69 percent, to end at 21,052.53 points. The S&P 500 lost 1.51 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.53 percent.

The coronavirus abruptly ended record job growth in the US. Data collected mostly from the first half of March showed the US economy lost 701,000 jobs last month, ending 113 straight months of job growth, and validating the view of many economists that the US is already in a recession.

The information collected before stay-at-home orders were doled out still pales in comparison to the jaw-dropping 10 million number of Americans who sought unemployment benefits in the two weeks ending March 28.

The worldwide spread of the virus has forced billions of people to stay indoors and pushed entire sectors to the brink of collapse, triggering mass layoffs, and dramatic steps by companies to raise cash. “Even as investors may be bracing for some grim economic reports over the next several weeks, we got a very sober reminder of what is to come by way of today’s jobs report,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Capital Management in Philadelphia.

Investors were also anxious heading into the weekend due to the possibility of “particularly ugly” weekend news on coronavirus case counts or new hot spots around the country, Luschini said.

“This is not like December 2018. We’re not likely to see a V-shaped recovery because we haven’t even begun to really tackle the main issue behind why this is happening. That’s still an ongoing process. It’s going to take time,” said Mike Turvey, a senior trading strategist at TD Ameritrade Institutional.

Of the S&P 500’s 11 major sectors, utilities was the biggest laggard, down 3.6 percent, followed by materials and financials, both of which declined more than 2 percent.

Only consumer staples rose and ended the day up 0.5 percent as the sector is seen as a defensive play, with consumers still needing to eat and buy household goods in a recession.

The energy sector was one of the best performers. US President Donald Trump met with US oil company executives at the White House and said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin both want something to happen to stabilize the global oil market. Oil prices have fallen by about two-thirds this year.