Wall Street Stays Flat

US stocks have not seen any major changes this week, staying uncharacteristically calm despite headlines such as the oil price crash. The Dow Jones gained 457 points on its Wednesday session, a jump of 2%. It is now trading at 23,400 points on the hourly chart. Likewise, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ indices saw similar gains, climbing 2.3% and 2,8%, respectively.

However, this is most likely as investors are also still awaiting news such as this week’s jobless claims data. Latest predictions expect around 4.2 million new unemployment claims to be filed, bringing the total up to 26 million claims in just 5 weeks.

Likewise, the US Senate just passed another bill to aid in the fight against the coronavirus in the State. After weeks of negotiations, the Senate passed a $500 billion bill in order to help small businesses, and it is expected to go to the House of Representatives later this week. This news did give some relief to the stock markets, as they now look to extend their gains for the second session in a row.

But there are reasons to continue being bearish about the stock market. Investors are vying for stocks to gain momentum again, with news such President Trump pushing state governors to ease their lockdowns and begin reopening their state borders again.
However, reopening so early, before the virus is under control, poses the risk of a wave of new infections flooding in. This poses the risk of causing more damage to the economy in the long term. Despite Trump’s eagerness to reopen the economy and start recovering the damage that virus has caused the stock market, the opposite could end up happening if he pulls the trigger too soon.