Dow drops 800 points as US prepares for ‘painful’ coronavirus period

Stock markets dropped at the opening bell on Wednesday, the first day of the second quarter, following President Trump’s warning that the nation was heading for a “painful” two-week period in the coronavirus pandemic.

In the first minutes of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 800 points, or 3.7 percent, while the S&P 500 fell 90 points, or 3.6 percent.

On Tuesday night, Trump unveiled projections that the pandemic would cost between 100,000 and 240,000 lives by the time it was through.

Earlier in the day, Goldman Sachs predicted that second quarter gross domestic product would drop by an annualized rate of 34 percent and unemployment would spike to a record 15 percent.

Stocks on Tuesday also closed out their worst first quarter on record. After hitting a new record in February, the S&P 500 was down some 20 percent for the year by Tuesday afternoon.