White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow says the U.S. must focus on reopening the economy as coronavirus case numbers are beginning to flatten out throughout the country.
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U.S. equity futures are trading mixed following the Tuesday selloff.
The major futures indexes are trading cautiously and searching for direction.
On Tuesday, Wall Street logged its biggest loss in May on worries about the downside of reopening the economy too soon.
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Underscoring concerns about the risks of ending shutdowns before the coronavirus pandemic is brought under control, the top U.S. infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told Congress bluntly that if the country reopens too soon, it could not only cause “some suffering and death that could be avoided, but could even set you back on the road to try to get economic recovery.”
Those comments reverberated in global markets.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 23764.78 | -457.21 | -1.89% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 2870.12 | -60.20 | -2.05% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 9002.550788 | -189.79 | -2.06% |
The S&P 500 dropped 2.1 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.9 percent and the Nasdaq composite lost 2.1 percent.
In Asia on Wednesday, Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.5 percent, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong edged 0.3 percent higher and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.2 percent.
Official figures show that the British economy shrank 2 percent in the first quarter of the year from the previous three-month period as restrictions on economic activity were ramped up ahead of the coronavirus lockdown towards the end of March.
The decline is the biggest since the global financial crisis in 2008 and is the first indication of the coronavirus’ growing impact on the economy ahead of the British lockdown on March 23. In March alone, the British economy shrank by 5.8 percent.
In Europe, London’s FTSE fell 1.1 percent, Germany’s DAX dropped 1.7 percent and France’s CAC was down 1.9 percent.
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A barrel of U.S. oil to be delivered in June fell 34 cents to $25.40 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday, it gained $1.25 to $26.33. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 74 cents to $29.24 per barrel.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
