Dow slips 200 points as investors brace for first earnings season under coronavirus
- US stocks slid on Monday after the S&P 500 completed its best weekly gain since 1974.
- Investors mulled heightened uncertainty heading into earnings season.
- JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Johnson & Johnson are among the firms set to announce their first-quarter results on Tuesday. They'll offer a preliminary look at how hard the coronavirus is hitting corporate profits.
- Crude climbed Monday session after a volatile overnight session that saw the commodity whipsaw between gains and losses after OPEC and Russia agreed to a historic production cut.
- Watch major indexes update live here.
US stocks slid on Monday as investors mulled upcoming earnings reports set to detail the extent of the coronavirus' hit to corporate profits. The S&P 500 is fresh off its best week since 1974.
Equity-market losses came as crude oil crept higher following a historic accord that saw Russia and its OPEC allies agree to a the largest production cut in history.
Here's where major US indexes stood shortly after the market open at 9:30 a.m. ET Monday:
- S&P 500: 2,767.64, down 0.8%
- Dow Jones industrial average: 23,514.56, down 0.9% (205 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 8,140.56, down 0.2%
JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Johnson & Johnson are among the companies scheduled to report their first-quarter results on Tuesday. Goldman Sachs analysts said on Monday that investors should pay more attention to 2021 guidance than near-term earnings for signs of how quickly the market may rebound.
WTI crude oil gained 2.7% after a volatile overnight session that saw the commodity whipsaw between gains and losses. Brent crude inched less than 0.5% higher. The deal between OPEC allies serves marks a major de-escalation in the weeks-long oil price war between the two parties and lifted significant downward pressure on the commodity.
The agreement calls for a global production cut of 9.7 million barrels per day, landing just below the 10 million barrels per day target proposed by President Donald Trump before the meeting.
Monday's stock-market decline follows the S&P 500's 12% gain last week, its best since 1974. The shortened trading week saw $2.3 trillion in fresh stimulus from the Federal Reserve, talks of a stage-four relief bill, and slowing infection rates in some of the US's largest virus hotspots.
Weekly jobless claims declined to 6.6 million from the previous week's 6.7 million reading, bringing the rolling three-week total to an unprecedented 17 million filings.
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