After President Donald Trump on Tuesday signaled he was eager to reopen the economy and amid hopes that U.S. lawmakers were close to an agreement on a stimulus bill to rescue the economy from the COVID-19 coronavirus, stocks jumped in early trading.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded more than 1,000 points higher, or 5.9%. The S&P 500 gained 5.2% while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 5.1%.
Senator Chuck Schumer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said they hope to have a deal by Tuesday morning. “There are still a few little differences. Neither of us think they are in any way going to get in the way of a final agreement,” Schumer said.
“From a market perspective … it feels like we’re coming to the end of it,” said Michael Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” Novogratz started buying into this market on Monday, he said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean the market’s going to go up, but a lot of that crazy volatility is kind of coming out.”
Tuesday’s gains also came as President Donald Trump signaled he was eager to reopen the economy, despite concerns of public health officials. “At some point we’re going to open up our country, and it will be fairly soon,” Trump said during an evening press briefing on the fast-spreading virus.
Markets are getting support from the Federal Reserve, which said Monday it would embark on an open-ended asset purchase program. The central bank said the program will run in the “amounts needed to support smooth market functioning and effective transmission of monetary policy to broader financial conditions and the economy.”
“This market has been utterly dangerous since February,” wrote Fundstrat’s Tom Lee in a note Tuesday. “But there are glimmers of hope.”
MacDailyNews Take: As stocks jump on stimulus hopes, Apple shares surged along with them in early trading and the company’s market cap is again north of $1 trillion.