Democracy Dies in Darkness

U.S. stocks plunge amid steep falls in oil prices, bank earnings and retail sales

The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq pull back from even bigger losses on news of Germany easing its virus lockdown and advances against the pandemic in New York

By
and 
April 15, 2020 at 5:31 p.m. EDT
As malls like the Shops at Iverson in Hillcrest Heights, Md., have been shut down around the country, sales at clothing stores fell by 50.7 percent in March. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)

Investors received a reality check Wednesday on what happens when the world’s biggest economy comes to a near stop. A series of wrenching numbers on retail sales, oil prices and bank profits knocked a stock rally off its tracks and hit the pause button on investor optimism.

The Dow Jones industrial average was in the red all day, closing down 445 points, or nearly 1.9 percent, to finish at 23,504. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 2.2 percent to 2,783, and the Nasdaq composite slid 1.4 percent to wind up at 8,393. All three indexes pared even steeper losses on news that Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, was talking of easing its coronavirus curbs and after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said New York had made advances on the virus testing front.