US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence make their way to the Rose Garden to speak on COVID-19 testing at the White House in Washington, DC on September 28, 2020.
mandel ngan/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
U.S. and European equity futures fell sharply on Friday after President Donald Trump announced that he and the first lady have tested positive for coronavirus.
“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately,” President Trump said on Twitter. First Lady Melania added on Twitter that they were “feeling good.”
U.S. equity futures went from modest to sharper losses on the news. Dow futures
YM00,
were down 480 points , S&P 500 futures
ES00,
fell 1.7% or nearly 60 points and Nasdaq-100 futures
NQ00,
sank over 200 points, or 2%.
German DAX
DAX,
futures fell 0.8% and FTSE 100 futures
UKX,
dropped 0.9%.
Trump’s positive coronavirus test came hours after news that close senior aide Hope Hicks, who had been traveling with him this week, had contracted the virus. Trump’s age, 74, puts him in a higher risk category for complications. The death toll in the U.S. stands at over 200,000.
The news also comes only about a month before the U.S. election, and after a contentious debate between Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden earlier this week. “I’m assuming Biden moves big in the polls,” said Stephen Innes, chief global markets strategist at AXI.
