Dow futures up more than 500 points as global stocks rebound from market rout

Stock futures recovered from an earlier tumble on Sunday night as investors shrugged off concerns around the coronavirus outbreak. As of 3 a.m. ET Monday, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 510 points, pointing to an opening gain of 471.64 points for the index at Monday’s open. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also pointed to gains at the open for the two indexes on Monday.

Dow futures briefly fell more than 500 points earlier before recovering. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all fell more than 10% last week, their biggest weekly declines since October 2008. They also entered correction territory, down more than 10% from all-time highs notched earlier in February.

Those declines came after a sharp increase in coronavirus cases outside of China. The number of cases continued to increase over the weekend, including in the U.S. The Japanese yen, often viewed as a safe-haven currency in times of economic uncertainty, weakened 0.11% against the greenback to 108.19 per dollar. It had earlier touched a high of 106.97, an indication Sunday that the risk-off sentiment that sent equity markets tumbling remained after a weekend full of negative coronavirus-related news.

A private survey on Chinese manufacturing activity released during Asian trading hours on Monday came in at its weakest level ever. The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) came in at 40.3 for February, far below expectations of a reading of 45.7 by economists in a Reuters poll. PMI readings above 50 indicate expansion, while those below that level signify a contraction.

That came after an official data released Saturday showed China’s official manufacturing PMI plunging to 35.7 in February, a record low, from 50 in January. A reading below 50 indicates contraction in a sector. The plunge “shows the extent to which an outbreak can hit an economy,” said Ed Hyman, a widely followed economist on Wall Street and Evercore ISI chairman, in a note to clients. “All this is quite uncertain, and we may be overreacting. But we also don’t want to underreact.” Gaming revenues in Macau also plunged nearly 88% last month.

Dow futures up more than 500 points as global stocks rebound from market rout, CNBC, Mar 2