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U.S. stock futures were flat late Wednesday, as traders awaited for President Donald Trump’s address to the nation following another steep selloff on Wall Street that snapped a more-than-decade-long bull market for the Dow.
The president is scheduled to speak live from the Oval Office at 9 p.m. Eastern, and is expected to detail plans on how the government is addressing the spreading coronavirus outbreak, including possible economic stimulus plans.
What are markets doing?
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YMH20, -0.14% gave up early-session gains and were last about flat, while S&P 500 futures ESH20, -0.14% and Nasdaq-100 futures NQH20, +0.02% gained fractionally.
Earlier, the Dow DJIA, -5.86% plunged 1,464.94 points, or 5.9%, to close at 23,553.22, marking a bear market, widely defined as a drop of at least 20% from a recent record intraday peak. That ended the blue-chip gauge’s 11-year bull-market run.
Read: The Dow just tumbled into a bear market — here’s how long those downturns last on average
The S&P 500 SPX, -4.89% fell 140.85 points, or 4.9%, to close at 2,741.38. The Nasdaq Composite COMP, -4.70% tumbled 392.20 points, or 4.7%, to end at 7,952.05.
Bear-market numbers loomed for those two indexes as well. The S&P 500 will fall into a bear market if it closes below 2,708.92 — a little over 32 points — while the Nasdaq will do so if it closes under 7,853.74, about 98 points lower than Wednesday’s close.
What was driving markets?
Futures trading was muted following another volatile day of trading, as investors took a wait-and-see approach ahead of Trump’s address later in the evening, with hopes of quick and solid stimulus measures, perhaps by executive order.
Stocks fell Wednesday after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said a robust economic stimulus plan would take a a while to get through Congress, while he backed plans to help small businesses. On Capitol Hill, Trump’s proposal to cut payroll taxes was met with skepticism from both parties.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic, as governments from Italy to California imposed bans on public gatherings in an effort to slow the illness’s spread.
What are analysts saying?
“Even in the best-case scenario it will take time for spending to return to normal,” Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said in a note. “We remain firmly of the view that a sustained market recovery cannot begin until the number of new cases clearly has peaked, but that’s probably several weeks away. In the meantime, the numbers likely will get substantially worse.”
How were other markets trading?
After bouncing back Tuesday, crude oil fell again Wednesday, though picked up again in late electronic trading. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery CLJ20, +0.39% was last up 1% at $33.32 a barrel, while May Brent crude BRNK20, +0.14% , the global benchmark, was about flat at $35.84 a barrel.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 XJO, -2.49% fell into bear-market territory during Wednesday trading, and fell nearly 2% more when it reopened Thursday.
