Trump Extends Coronavirus Social Distancing Guidelines To April 30

U.S. stock futures opened for trading Sunday evening, pointing to a lower open on Monday morning. Shortly after the futures market's 6 p.m. ET open, the S&P 500 was down about 1.8% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.2%.

Volatility Continues

The S&P 500 closed Friday's session at 2,541.47 and the Dow closed down more than 4% at 21,636.78, marking a reversal from a three-day winning streak where major indices gained more than 20% from last Monday's close.

That three-day rally included the Dow’s best single-day percentage gain since 1933, followed by the Labor Department reporting a record 3.28 million weekly unemployment benefit claims.

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Trumps Extends Coronavirus Social Distancing Guidelines

During his daily press briefing Sunday evening, President Donald Trump extended coronavirus (COVID-19) social distancing guidelines to April 30 and sees the highest rate of coronavirus-related deaths occurring in two weeks.

Just last week, Trump said he "would love to have the country opened up, and rarin’ to go by Easter," which is April 12.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who many consider the top member of the White House's coronavirus task force, earlier Sunday gave CNN's Jake Tapper an update on the latest models. He said the U.S. could eventually see 100,000 deaths from the novel coronavirus and he expects the U.S. to have over "millions of cases."

"Whenever the models come in, they give a worst-case scenario and a best-case scenario," Fauci said. "Generally, the reality is somewhere in the middle. I've never seen a model of the diseases that I've dealt with where the worst case actually came out. They always overshoot."

Followning Trump's announcement, Fauci called the White House's move to extend the deadline to April 30 “a wise and prudent decision."

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