Trump, first lady Melania positive for the coronavirus
U.S. stock futures are pointing to a sharply lower start for Wall Street on Friday after President Donald Trump and his wife Melania tested positive for the novel coronavirus, setting up a new level of uncertainty one month before Election Day.
“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
The diagnosis came after Hope Hicks, a top adviser to the president, also tested positive for the virus.
As of 5:30 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow were indicated 286 points, or 1.03% lower to 27,403. The S&P 500 futures lost 35.32 points, or 1.05% to 3,332.38 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures shed 189.25 points, or 1.64% to 11,385.50.
Crude futures also came under pressure with U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures dropping $1.22, or 3.15% to $37.50 per barrel. International Brent crude futures were down $1.28, or 3.13% to $39.65 a barrel.
September jobs report in focus
On the data front, the U.S. Labor Department will publish nonfarm payrolls data for September at 8:30 a.m. ET, offering a gauge of job-market strength at ahead of the election.
Economists predict employers added another 850,000 jobs last month, marking the first time hiring has fallen below the 1 million mark since May. The unemployment rate, which has fallen far faster than anyone would have imagined of six months ago, is expected to fall another 2 percentage points to 8.2%
The U.S. economy has recouped nearly half of the 23 million jobs it lost since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic as states moved to close nonessential businesses.
According to figures released by the Labor Department on Thursday, about 787,000 people filed first-time applications for unemployment insurance in the week ended September 26, a small drop from the previous week.
Amazon says close to 20,000 of its employees contracted Covid-19
Meanwhile, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) disclosed in a blogpost Thursday that 19,816 of its front-line U.S. workers at Amazon and Whole Foods have tested positive or been presumed positive for Covid-19 between March 1 and Sept. 19, shedding light for the first time on how its workforce has been affected by the virus.
Politicians, unions, and some of Amazon’s investors and staff have criticized how the company has responded to Covid-19, accusing it of putting workers at risk when it kept warehouses open during the pandemic.
The online retail giant employs 1.372 million front-line workers at both Amazon and its Whole Foods subsidiary.
