When Donald Trump tweeted that he and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19, the Dow futures went as low as 500 points.
With the presidential debate just finished this week, a surprising tweet from the president made the U.S. markets drop during off-market hours.
Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020
Moments later, Twitter users have started to use #TrumpHasCovid as the trending hashtag in the platform. As of this writing, it now has over 400,000 tweets. The Dow Jones futures dropped as low as 500 points but is trying to claw back as of this writing to a nearly 200 point drop.
The S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures also plunged to negative territory in reaction to the news. Here are the scenarios that investors and traders are possibly watching in the markets.
Congress continues talks on the massive stimulus bill
In a close vote of 214-207 votes, the chamber has approved the legislation. However, as per CNBC, likely, the US$2.2 trillion [AU$ 3.08 trillion] Democratic coronavirus stimulus bill would not go through the Republican Senate to make it a law.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has opposed the Democrats’ proposal on spending additional trillions to curb the pandemic. This month, the Republicans only agreed to spend not more than US$1.3 trillion.
Additionally, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin could not produce an explicit agreement about the additional stimulus on Thursday.
September jobs growth report expected to slow down
The much-awaited jobs report for September is going to be released today. The Economists expect 800,000 nonfarm payrolls for this month compared to 1.37 million in August, as Dow Jones tells CNBC.
The Dow futures have already shown early signs of weakness. Because of the breaking news of Donald Trump being COVID-19 positive, it has led to a more cautious market environment.
Looking at the bigger picture, it seems like that the Dow Jones is still hovering above its 200-period moving average. So traders see if it can sustain a temporary bounce back or continue its plunge to end the week.
Images courtesy of Fox News/YouTube Thumbnail, TradingView [1] [2]