- Wall Street’s main indexes fall sharply on Thursday.
- US economic activity declined by 32.9% in second quarter.
- US Pres. Trump suggests delaying November presidential election.
Major equity indexes in the US opened sharply lower on Thursday pressured by the US GDP report and US President Donald Trump’s comments about the 2020 presidential election. Mirroring the risk-averse market atmosphere, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), Wall Street’s fear gauge, is up 10% on a daily basis.
As of writing, the S&P 500 was down nearly 1% on the day at 3,227, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was losing 1.% at 26,172 and the Nasdaq Composite was falling 0.5% at 10,608.
The US Bureau of Economic Analysis, in its first estimate, reported that the economic activity in the US declined by 32.9% on a yearly basis in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump, via Twitter, argued that mail-in voting would cause the 2020 election to be the “most inaccurate and fraudulent” election in the US history and suggested to delay it until people can properly and safely vote.
Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, all of which trade in the negative territory, the Energy Index is down 3.5% as the biggest decliner.