Stock Market Futures: Dow To Open With Loss Tuesday After Historic Rally

Wall Street's mood swings continue. After staging the greatest comeback in its history Monday (and after falling to its lowest of lows on Feb. 25), the Dow Jones Industrial Average now looks set to plumb the depths once again on Tuesday.

Stock market futures Monday evening all foresee a lower open on Tuesday. As of 10:55 p.m. ET Monday, Dow futures were up a scant 144 points, suggesting an implied opening loss of 80.32 points at the opening bell on Tuesday. S&P 500 and NASDAQ-100 futures also indicated losses for the two indices at Tuesday’s open.

A forecast Sunday indicating a modest increase in futures blossomed into a full blown rally Monday that saw the Dow end the day 1,284 points higher, up 5.1%, at 26,693.84 points. Monday's rally was the best one-day point gain in Dow history.

It stands in stark contrast to the 1,190 point loss the Dow suffered on February 25, the largest single day loss in its history. The Dow lost a combined 3,500 points in five days last week but still has to fully recover this lost ground.

The S&P 500 gained 3,091 points to end Monday 4.61% higher at 3,090.54. The NASDAQ Composite rose 4.49% to 8,952.16. These huge gains snapped seven-day losing streaks for both the Dow and S&P 500.

The strong rally Monday was fueled by expectations the world leading central banks stood ready to combat any economic downturn caused by COVID-19. On Monday, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) took steps to limit the economic damage being wrought by COVID-19. The measures they announced almost mirrored that of the U.S. Federal Reserve, which indicated it might lower interest rates over the weekend.

BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda vowed to take actions as needed to stabilize markets under assault by COVID-19, while ECB President Christine Lagarde followed suit, saying the ECB stands ready to take appropriate and targeted measures commensurate with the underlying risks.

“The coronavirus outbreak is a fast developing situation, which creates risks for the economic outlook and the functioning of financial markets," she said.

The fillip delivered by these encouraging statements from the Fed, the BOJ and the ECB seems to have worn-off quickly, however, as investors again came face-to-face with the grim news late Monday the coronavirus is spreading quickly inside the U.S.

Washington state reported four more deaths from COVID-19 Monday, bringing to six the deaths from this disease since Saturday. All six deaths in the United States due to COVID-19 are in Washington. There are now around 100 COVID-19 cases throughout the U.S. Of this total, 18 are in Washington and 20 in California, which has had no deaths from the disease. Santa Clara County in California, however, reported two new cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the county's total number of cases to nine as of Monday.