Reuters / Brendan McDermid
- US equity futures fell sharply after trading commenced at 6 p.m. ET.
- S&P 500 futures slid more than 4% within five minutes, triggering a so-called limit down trading halt.
- The losses came as the Senate failed to agree on a $1.6 trillion stimulus packaged designed to boost the coronavirus-stricken economy.
- Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
It’s shaping up to be another rocky week in the stock market. US equity futures fell sharply after trading opened at 6 p.m. ET, triggering a limit down trading halt.
The decline came after the Senate failed to agree on a stimulus package designed to fight the sudden economic fallout from coronavirus. The rescue package would amount to roughly $1.6 trillion of aid, according to Politico.
Here’s where major US index futures stood as of 7:15 p.m. ET:
- S&P 500: 2,173.88, down 4.1%
- Dow Jones industrial average: 18,084.50, down 5% (956 points)
- Nasdaq 100: 6,628.50, down 4.3%
Major US stock indexes are fresh off their worst week since 2008. The sudden economic slowdown forced by the global coronavirus outbreak has prompted experts all across Wall Street to warn of an imminent recession.
The prospect of a prolonged economic contraction and the impact it will have on corporate profits have sent traders fleeing from stocks. Investors got an early sign of just how deeply coronavirus will impact the economy when jobless claims spiked to a two-year high last week.
Goldman Sachs has since forecast that the jobless claims figure from this upcoming week, due March 26, could reach a whopping 2.25 million. That would mark the largest single-week unemployment-filing surge in history – by a landslide.
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