US Stocks Open Higher Amid COVID-19 Slowdown Hopes

According to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Centre, there are over 337,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the US, which is the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world.

As the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be slowing down in some US states, according to Donald Trump, Wall Street has opened higher with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 641.10 points, or 3.05%, to open at 21,693.63.

The S&P 500 jumped by 89.63 points, or 3.60%, to 2,578.28. The Nasdaq Composite gained 287.09 points, or 3.89%, to 7,660.17 at the opening bell.

The trading data comes after White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Deborah Birx told reporters during a briefing that US officials were hoping the coronavirus mortality rate throughout the country would stabilise due to the restrictions already introduced.

Prior to this, on 5 April, US President Donald Trump expressed hope that the United States was seeing a “levelling-off” of the coronavirus crisis in some of the nation’s hot spots, saying Americans were starting to see “the light at the end of the tunnel”.

On 4 April, Trump said that the number of COVID-19 deaths would be on the rise this and next week. The US president admitted that the coming week and a half or two weeks were going to be hard but said that the government hoped the country would “stay under the minimum number” of deaths projected earlier (100,000).

The United States has the third highest death toll from COVID-19 in the world (over 9,600 fatalities), it is surpassed only by Italy (over 15,880 deaths) and Spain (more than 12,600 deaths). New York City alone has registered over 2,250 deaths from COVID-19.

Sourse: sputniknews.com