A broker passes the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York on June 17, 2020.
Michael Nagel | Bloomberg | fake pictures
US stock futures traded a little higher on Sunday night as Wall Street tried to build on the momentum of last week’s solid performance.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 42 points more, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures gained 0.1% and Nasdaq-100 futures advanced 0.4%.
Wall Street was making strong profits after a shortened business week due to the July 4 holiday. The Dow and S&P 500 rose 3.3% and 4%, respectively, last week and the Nasdaq rose 4.6% at the time.
The market also concluded its best quarterly performance in decades last week. The Dow recovered more than 17% during the second quarter, while the S&P 500 increased nearly 20% in that time period. Nasdaq posted a 30.6% gain for the quarter.
However, Sunday’s gains remain under control as the number of coronavirus cases continued to rise globally, raising concerns about the global economy and its recovery from the pandemic.
The World Health Organization said on Saturday that more than 200,000 cases of coronavirus were confirmed within 24 hours, a record. Regionally, the largest peak was observed in the Americas, where nearly 130,000 new cases were confirmed.
In the US, Florida and Texas reported daily record peaks of 11,445 and 8,258, respectively, on Saturday. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the outbreak is on track to overwhelm the city’s hospitals in two weeks. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez told ABC this weekend: “It is clear that growth is exponential right now.”
Data collected by Johns Hopkins University showed that more than 45,000 new cases were confirmed Saturday in the United States.
“We are currently experiencing an increase in COVID-19 cases, particularly in states in the solar belt that were at the forefront of loosening social distancing restrictions to facilitate the reopening of their economies,” said Marc Chaikin, CEO of Chaikin Analytics , in a publication.
“That drive to reopen has been stopped by the surge in COVID-19 cases and the temptation to translate this into a bearish outlook for stocks is strong,” he added. “However, the deaths have not skyrocketed, but are a lagging indicator. Therefore, the next two weeks are critical for various reasons.”
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