Futures tumble as coronavirus crisis intensifies

[April 01, 2020]  By Uday Sampath Kumar

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures sank on Wednesday following stark predictions of a rising U.S. death toll and economic damage from the coronavirus outbreak, a day after the S&P 500 ended its worst quarter since the 2008 financial crisis.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned Americans of a "very, very painful" two weeks, with White House health officials modeling an enormous jump in virus-related deaths even with strict social distancing measures.

Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester said reports measuring U.S. economic activity are likely to be "very bad" in the first half of 2020 and the unemployment rate could rise above 10% due to efforts to stem the virus outbreak.

The rapid worldwide spread of the disease has forced entire countries to shut down, stalling business activity and raising fears of corporate defaults.

A trader wears a face mask on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) following traders testing positive for Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in New York, U.S., March 19, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

The S&P 500 lost about $5.6 trillion in market value to post its worst first quarter on record, while the Dow Jones <.DJI> ended Tuesday with its biggest quarterly fall since 1987. At 05:21 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMcv1> were down 672 points, or 3.09%, S&P 500 e-minis <EScv1> were down 81.5 points, or 3.17% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQcv1> were down 216 points, or 2.77%.

SPDR S&P 500 ETFs <SPY.P> were down 3.27%.

The S&P 500 index <.SPX> closed down 1.6% at 2,584.59​ on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

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