(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were steady on Tuesday at the end of one of Wall Street’s worst first quarters on record, with evidence growing of the scale of damage caused by the collapse in oil prices and business activity due to the coronavirus.
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 20, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Sliding from the record highs of mid February, the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes are now set to end the quarter more than 18% lower from the start of the year as the health crisis deepens in the United States and disrupts supply chains.
The declines have set the benchmark S&P 500 on track for its worst first quarter since 1938, down more than $5 trillion in market value, and investors fear corporate defaults and more mass layoffs going in to the second quarter.
The blue-chip Dow is set for its biggest quarter