Monday’s Stock Market Open: US Equities Drop As New Coronavirus Cases Confirmed In South Korea, Japan, China

Update 12:05 p.m. EDT:

U.S. stocks turned mixed by noon on Monday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 137.69 points to 24,193.63, while the S&P 500 fell 5.23 points to 2,924.57 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 45.59 points to 9,166.91.

In Europe markets finished mixed, as Britain’s FTSE-100 edged up 0.06%, while France’s CAC-40 fell 1.31% and Germany’s DAX dropped 0.73%.

Original story: U.S. stocks opened lower on Monday after South Korea and some other countries reported new confirmed cases of coronavirus, triggering fears of a second wave of the pandemic.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 219.32 points to 24,112.00, while the S&P 500 fell 22.94 points to 2,906.86 and the Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 61.67 points to 9,059.65.

South Korea, once thought to have stabilized its coronavirus outbreak, warned that it detected a new cluster of cases involving nightclubs, while Japan, China, Germany and Singapore also confirmed new cases of the illness.

The total number of cases around the world now surpassed 4 million.

U.S. President Donald Trump has encouraged more businesses to reopen, while the U.K. government plans to gradually ease its own lockdown.

“The world very much remains on the path to reopening, a process that will accelerate over the coming weeks,” said Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge. “There will be a reckoning around the reopening and linearity narratives (i.e. both are too sanguine right now).”

While U.S. markets have rallied since late March, Dan Russo, chief market strategist at Chaikin Analytics, said: “Over the past three months, which roughly lines up with the top in the S&P 500, it is the economically sensitive cyclical sectors of the market [energy, financials and industrials] that have lagged.”

Bob Baur, chief global economist at Principal Global Investors, warned: “Much of the eventual improved growth and virus news is already priced into markets. Because so much future growth and uptrend potential is priced in, we expect a period of relapse and consolidation through June.”

Overnight in Asia, markets were mostly higher. The Shanghai Composite slipped 0.02%; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.53%; while Japan’s Nikkei-225 jumped 1.05%.

In Europe markets traded lower, as Britain’s FTSE-100 slipped 0.38%, while France’s CAC-40 fell 1.6% and Germany’s DAX dropped 1.11%.

Crude oil futures gained 0.32% at $24.82 per barrel, Brent crude slipped 0.68% at $30.76. Gold futures fell 0.36%.

The euro edged down 0.07% at $1.083 while the pound sterling slipped 0.67% at $1.2321.