Stocks are sliding again today as the meltdown in oil that created negative prices yesterday in a soon-to-expire contract is spreading past the expiring contract and weighing down prices for oil to be delivered in June and later, not just in May. Meanwhile, the world has reached a grim milestone as the number of cases of COVID-19 around the globe has now hit 2.5M. Republicans and Democrats have been fighting for over a week over what to include in the fourth round of financial stimulus designed to ease the economic toll of the pandemic, but reports indicate that Congress is progressing toward a $450B deal to help small businesses and hospitals.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In U.S. data, existing home sales dropped 8.5% in March to a 5.27M home rate, which was a little below expectations.
Meanwhile, the latest data from the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering shows there are now 2.5M confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 171,810 deaths due to the disease.
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
TOP NEWS: Shares of IBM (IBM) are 5% lower near noon after Big Blue reported better than expected adjusted EPS alongside slighly lower than expected revenue in the first quarter. IBM, like many others, is withdrawing its full-year 2020 guidance in light of the current COVID-19 crisis, but said during its Q1 earnings conference call that performance was in line with expectations in February before COVID-19. In an interview on CNBC's Mad Money, Arvind Krishna added that he expects to maintain the dividend going forward.
Meanwhile, Coca-Cola (KO) reported better than expected earnings and revenue in the first quarter, stating that the company was growing volume 3%, excluding China, and was on track to achieve its previously provided full year 2020 targets through the end of February. "As the coronavirus pandemic continues to evolve, there is uncertainty around its ultimate impact; therefore, the company's full year financial and operating results cannot be reasonably estimated at this time," Coke added. Near noon, the beverage giant's stock is down 3%.
LabCorp (LH) announced that it has received an Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA that permits nasal swab specimens to be collected at home using the Pixel by LabCorp COVID-19 test home collection kit.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Beyond Meat (BYND), which rose 5% after CNBC reported that Starbucks (SBUX) will debut Beyond Meat products in China. Also higher was TriState Capital (TSC), which gained 28% after reporting quarterly results.
Among the notable losers was Qurate Retail (QRTEA), which slid 10% after UBS analyst Eric Sheridan downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy. Also lower was Philip Morris (PM), which fell 6% after reporting quarterly results.
INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was down 668.48, or 2.83%, to 22,981.96, the Nasdaq was down 331.91, or 3.88%, to 8,228.82, and the S&P 500 was down 93.87, or 3.32%, to 2,729.29.
