(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock index futures rose, erasing earlier losses, as investors weighed whether the coronavirus outbreak is slowing enough for the government to move toward relaxing stay-at-home rules.
Contracts on the S&P 500 rose 0.9% as of 7:48 a.m. in London, erasing an earlier loss of 1.1%. President Donald Trump said he will unveil guidelines to relax stay-at-home rules on Thursday, citing signs that the outbreak is plateauing in parts of the country.
“Investors are expecting economic activity to resume soon, as the virus appears to be peaking out,” said Naoki Fujiwara, chief fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management Co. “But we're not in a situation where we can confidently rely on that hope. Markets have priced in bad economic data, and it remains susceptible to news flow.”
Futures slumped earlier, and the underlying S&P 500 sank 2.2% Wednesday after data showed factory output slid in March by the most since 1946 and retail sales tumbled by the most on record. Financial shares slid as Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s investment portfolio took a hit from the pandemic, while Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. followed rivals in setting aside billions for loan losses. Oil plunged to the lowest in nearly two decades.
Trump has been eager to ease social-distancing measures that have caused businesses nationwide to shutter, costing more than 16 million Americans their jobs in the past month. “The battle continues, but the data suggests that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases,” Trump said Wednesday at a Rose Garden press conference.
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