- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) futures plunged 260 points on Thursday morning.
- Health experts told the Senate to brace for “hundreds of thousands” of US coronavirus cases.
- China reported a parabolic rise in deaths and cases after changing its diagnostic methodology.
After a record-breaking day on the stock market on Wednesday, Dow Jones futures took a brutal fall overnight.
It comes as U.S. health experts urged Congress to take the coronavirus threat more seriously. According to one testimony, there are likely seven or eight unknown cases for every confirmed infection.
Asha George, executive director of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense warned:
It may be hundreds of thousands of cases (in the U.S. eventually).
Speaking before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, a number of experts agreed the threat to the U.S. is underestimated and under-reported.
Dow futures tumble overnight
Dow Jones futures contracts took a hit in after-hours trading Wednesday and continued to slide lower overnight. The stock market looks set to open around 250 points lower on Thursday.
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq Composite fell 0.78% and 0.98% respectively.
U.S. coronavirus outbreaks to emerge in ‘two-four weeks’
The U.S. has now reported 14 confirmed cases of the deadly virus. But health experts believe the real figures are much higher as the virus can be transmitted even while undetected for 10-14 days.
Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said there are “certainly cases we don’t know about,” and that we’re only “capturing 25 percent of cases at best.” He urged the committee to expand testing and warned them to expect a wider outbreak.
We’re going to see those outbreaks start to emerge in the next two to four weeks.
If it spreads in the U.S., there could be a drag on the economy and the Dow Jones. Luciana Borio, former director for medical and biodefense preparedness at the National Security Council agreed. He said the real number of cases is “much, much higher” than reported.
We need to brace ourselves for difficult weeks or months to come… We’re going to see a lot more cases in the United States in the near future.
Stock markets rattled as China reports parabolic rise in virus
China confirmed overnight what many had already suspected: the infection rate is significantly higher than first thought. Almost 15,000 new cases were reported overnight, taking the global toll to 60,000.
The numbers spiked after China changed the way it diagnosed the virus. Additional cases were confirmed in the US and London, UK. Julie Gerberding, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that America is not yet prepared for the looming pandemic.
“We simply don’t have the surge capacity” to handle a widespread outbreak. Now is the time to be “leaning in.”
This article was edited by Samburaj Das.
