Stocks descended deeper into their month-long funk Wednesday as the nation entered one of its most dire periods in memory. Coronavirus deaths are piling up, vast swaths of the population are confined to their homes, and tens of millions are hurting while the pandemic squeezes the life out of the economy.
As the nation looks for a whisper of good news, Wednesday’s sell-off suggests Wall Street is bracing for even deeper losses after finishing one of its worst quarters ever.
“We are in for shockingly bad labor market numbers in Thursday’s unemployment claims,” said Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust. “We are in for the sharpest quarterly decline in economic activity that we have ever seen. And the recovery in the second half of the year is going to be slow, challenging and disappointing. It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Continue reading.