On Monday, there was a sharp increase in U.S. stocks, as they recovered from the decline they had suffered in the previous session. This improvement was likely because investors believe fiscal stimulus is more likely and also because of the announcement that President Donald Trump will be leaving the hospital where he had been admitted for the treatment of COVID-19. According to the president, he was feeling ‘really good’ and at 6:30 p.m., he would be leaving the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He had been taken to the hospital, late on Friday.
After his physician announced that Trump had been given the experimental antibody treatment developed by Regeneron for the coronavirus, the company saw its share price experience a jump of 7.1%. The disease has ended up taking the lives of more than a million people all over the world and has wreaked havoc across global economies. Mark Meadows, the White House Chief of Staff said on Monday that there was a possibility that they would come to an agreement with U.S. lawmakers about providing more coronavirus relief and that the president was committed to getting the deal done.
The Leuthold Group’s chief investment strategist, Jim Paulsen said that there was still communication going on about the stimulus deal and there was an increasing possibility that something would be done about it. The expert at the Minneapolis-based company said that any news mentioning the recovery of the president meant that there would be less disruptions, volatility, and other unknowns, all of which tend to scare off investors. After the announcement of the president’s departure from the hospital, there was a 1.68% increase or of 465.83 points in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which reached 28,148.6. Likewise, there was a 1.80% increase in the S&P 500 Index, as it increased by 60.16 points to reach 3408.6.
Similarly, the Nasdaq Composite reached 11,332.49, which was an increase of 2.32% or 257.47 points. Only recently, the S&P 500 was weighed down by a slowing down in the economic recovery in the country and doubts about the possibility of additional fiscal aid. As a matter of fact, the benchmark index had registered its worst month in September since the market crash that had occurred earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Positive economic data also played an important role in helping the market go up once again.
Last week, the data released by the U.S. Labor Department had shown an unexpected slowdown in the rate of employment growth. In addition, the month of September had also brought about an unprecedented decline in the domestic manufacturing sector. However, the figures that were released on Monday showed that there was an increase in activity in the broader services industry. As a matter of fact, it had gone above levels that had actually prevailed before the coronavirus pandemic hit the country and brought about a massive decline in every sector of the economy. This has added a positive note to the market.