By Christiana Sciaudone
Investing.com -- The market keeps showing a whole heaping lot of love for tech, with the Nasdaq hitting a record for a second day running.
The Dow Jones, on the other hand, fell 1.4%, dragged down by Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA), 3M (NYSE:MMM) and Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW).
Coronavirus infections and deaths keep coming, with top U.S. pandemics expert Anthony Fauci, speaking on a podcast hosted by The Wall Street Journal, saying that new Covid-19 cases were seeing “exponential growth.”
“It went from an average of about 20,000 to 40,000 and 50,000. That’s doubling. If you continue doubling, two times 50 is 100,” Fauci said. “Any state that is having a serious problem, that state should seriously look at shutting down. It’s not for me to say because each state is different.”
Data shows that more than 3 million Americans have already been infected by Covid-19, with a death toll exceeding 133,000. On Wednesday, the United States reported a daily record of more than 60,000 cases.
Walgreens and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (NASDAQ:BBBY) dropped as retailers suffered from a weak quarter. Banks are up next week.
Here are three things that may move markets tomorrow:
1. Biden bashes Wall Street
Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden ripped rival Donald Trump and Wall Street as he started rolling out his economic plans, if elected. The federal government would spend $400 billion on manufacturing and $300 billion on research and development under an economic plan, the former Vice President said, according to USA Today.
“It’s time corporate America paid their fair share in taxes,” Biden said. “The days of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) paying nothing in federal income tax will be over.”
Biden has an “incredibly stable and unusually large” lead over Trump, according to the polling website FiveThirtyEight. Of course, the media also thought Hillary Clinton was bound to win four years ago.
2. Oil finally slides
Eyes are on oil after prices slumped as much as 3% on Thursday, the most in over two weeks, finally seeming to acknowledge that the nascent economic recovery in the U.S. is being quashed as infections rise and cities shut back down.
“The virus spread is not plateauing as many populous states (Texas and Florida) are still seeing significant increases in hospitalizations,” said Ed Moya, senior market strategist at New York-based OANDA said in a note on oil.
U.S. gasoline demand was falling in areas where lockdowns were being reinstated, Lachlan Shaw, head of commodity research at National Australia Bank (OTC:NABZY), was quoted saying by Reuters, although demand for fuels continued to recover in the economically-crucial East Coast.
3. Banks Ahead!
Banks were in the red Thursday ahead of earnings reports that kick off next week. The S&P 500 Financials was down 1% as parts of the U.S. close back down amid growing coronavirus infections across the country. Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) dropped 2.8% and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) fell 2.1%
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) fell 1.4% after DA Davidson downgraded the stock to neutral from buy. DA Davidson upgraded JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) & Co., but shares nonetheless fell 2.2%.
Investors will be watching bank earnings for signs that the business shutdowns and massive job losses because of Covid-19 have begun to erode credit quality, which could leave banks holding a rising number of bad loans.