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US STOCKS-Wall Street tumbles as oil crash adds to pandemic fears

Published 04/22/2020, 02:40 AM
Updated 04/22/2020, 02:50 AM
© Reuters.
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* Coca-Cola sees big hit from low demand for soft drinks
* Travelers misses on profit as catastrophe claims jump
* All 11 S&P 500 sectors trading lower
* Indexes: Dow -1.90%, S&P 500 -2.26%, Nasdaq -2.32%

(Updates with afternoon trading)
By Noel Randewich
April 21 (Reuters) - Wall Street tumbled for a second
straight day on Tuesday as a collapse in U.S. oil prices and
glum forecasts by companies foreshadowed the worst economic
slump since the Great Depression.
All 11 S&P 500 sector indexes fell 1.5% or more, with energy
.SPNY sliding for the seventh time in eight sessions a day
after the WTI contract CLc1 crashed below zero as oil traders
ran out of storage for May deliveries.
With the collapse spilling into June futures contracts,
equity investors became wary of the extent of the economic
damage from sweeping lockdown measures that have halted business
activity and sparked millions of layoffs. O/R
The S&P information technology index .SPLRCT slumped 2.9%,
while the financial index .SPSY dropped 3.2%. After many
companies pulled their forecasts because of uncertainty related
to the coronavirus, investors will focus in the coming days on
first-quarter reports for signs of how badly the pandemic is
hurting U.S. corporations.
The benchmark S&P 500 index .SPX has climbed over 20% from
its March low, powered by trillions of dollars in stimulus, but
it remain nearly 20% below its February record high due to fears
of devastating economic damage caused by the coronavirus.
"When are countries and states going to reopen their
economies, and what does that even mean? I'd expect us to see
choppy days like this until we get some visibility and figure
this out, but that's going to be a while," warned Joe Saluzzi,
co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.
U.S. jobless claims hit 22 million in the past month as
companies launched dramatic cost-saving measures to ride out the
slump, and readings of U.S. business activity surveys, due on
Thursday, are likely to plummet to recession-era lows.
Coca-Cola Co KO.N provided the latest evidence of the
damage wrought by the global health crisis, saying its
current-quarter results would take a severe hit from low demand
for its soft drinks. Travelers Companies TRV.N , the first of the big U.S.
insurers to report results, reported a 25% fall in quarterly
profit, hurt by higher catastrophe losses, but its shares rose
0.6%. International Business Machines Corp IBM.N declined 3.7%
after the company withdrew its 2020 annual forecast late on
Monday. Chip industry bellwether Texas Instruments TXN.O fell 3%
and streaming service provider Netflix Inc NFLX.O dropped 0.3%
ahead of their quarterly reports after market close.
At 2:25 p.m. ET (1825 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial
Average .DJI was down 1.9% at 23,200.63 points, while the S&P
500 .SPX lost 2.26% to 2,759.31.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 2.32% to 8,361.71.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
5.48-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.90-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted one new 52-week high and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 24 new highs and 31 new lows.

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