Stocks closed out their worst quarter since the financial crisis with a down day as the calendar gets set to flip to April with the U.S., Europe and other parts of the world still engulfed by the coronavirus pandemic. The market rout represented a greater then 30% decline at its worst point during the quarter, but stocks had risen 17% over the past seven days as unprecedented government spending and monetary stimulus lifted stocks from their worst levels.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In U.S. data, the Conference Board's consumer confidence index fell to a three-year low of 120.0 from a 6-month high of 132.6 in February. The Case Shiller 20-city home price index dipped -0.04% in January to 218.6. The Chicago PMI fell 1.2 points to 47.8 in March.
In White House news, Bloomberg reported that President Donald Trump has approved a proposal to delay payment of certain tariffs by three months. Additionally, Trump tweeted earlier that "this is the time" for a "long awaited" $2T infrastructure bill, adding that the bill should be "focused solely on jobs and rebuilding" the nation's infrastructure.
In China, the official March manufacturing and services indexes bounced from record lows in February, with the composite index improving too. The CFLP manufacturing index rebounded 16.3 points to 52.0, the services index rose 22.7 points to 52.3, and the composite index rose to 53.0 after falling 24.1 points in February to 28.9.
Meanwhile, the latest data from the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering shows there are now 838,061 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 41,261 deaths due to the disease.
TOP NEWS: Amazon (AMZN) confirmed that it fired Chris Smalls, a fulfillment center employee who led the Staten Island warehouse strike, for violating its quarantine measures, including failing to abide by a 14-day quarantine required after being exposed to an employee with a confirmed case of COVID-19, Bloomberg's Josh Eidelson and Luke Kawa reported.
In a statement Monday night in response to the news, New York State Attorney General Letitia James said it was "disgraceful that Amazon would terminate an employee who bravely stood up to protect himself and his colleagues." On Tuesday, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said he has ordered the city's Commission on Human Rights to probe Amazon over the firing.
Carnival (CCL) announced that it has commenced private offerings of $3B aggregate principal amount of first-priority senior secured notes due 2023, $1.75B aggregate principal amount of senior convertible notes due 2023, and commenced a $1.25B stock offering. After the news, Wells Fargo analyst Timothy Conder called the capital raise of $6B "needed" and "expected," adding that he hopes Royal Caribbean (RCL) and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) will also consider "proactive" equity raises.
Shares of drugmaker Amarin (AMRN) plunged 70.5% after a federal judge ruled in favor of generic companies Dr. Reddy's (RDY) and Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HKMPF) in the patent litigation for its Vascepa capsule franchise.
Papa John's (PZZA) issued the "second business update in the pizza space in the span of 18 hours" following Domino's Pizza's (DPZ) own update last night, after which Stephens analyst James Rutherford said the updates affirm his view that "pizza names are the investor's safe haven during COVID-19." However, the shares are moving in different directions after the updates, with Domino's sliding 6.3% and Papa John's rising 7.6%.
General Motors (GM) reported that it had launched a rapid-response project to produce masks at scale on Friday, March 20 and by next week expects to deliver its first 20,000 masks to frontline workers. Meanwhile, peer Ford (F), which has also pivoted to making medical supplies to help in the COVID-19 fight, announced that it is delaying the restart of production at its North America plants "to help protect its workers."
Additionally, Bank of America (BAC) vice chairman Anne Finucane told CNBC that the lender has hired over 2,000 new employees in March alone and is not planning any layoffs or job cuts in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Kiniksa (KNSA), which rose 26.7% after it announced early evidence of treatment response with mavrilimumab. Also higher was Eldorado Resorts (ERI), which jumped 19.5% after CNBC reported that the company's deal with Caesars (CZR) is moving forward and has only been delayed. Shares of Caesars gained 5.3% after the news.
Among the notable losers was Delphi Technologies (DLPH), which slid 21.9% after BorgWarner (BWA) accused its of breaching their transaction agreement. Also lower were RH (RH) and Cronos Group (CRON), which fell a respective 14.9% and 10.6% after reporting quarterly results.
INDEXES: The Dow fell 410.32, or 1.84%, to 21,917.16, the Nasdaq lost 74.05, or 0.95%, to 7,700.10, and the S&P 500 declined 42.06, or 1.6%, to 2,584.59.
Amazon.com
-12.79 (-0.65%)
Carnival
+0.355 (+2.77%)
Royal Caribbean
+2.37 (+7.95%)
Norwegian Cruise Line
+0.23 (+2.15%)
Amarin
-9.6 (-70.64%)
Dr. Reddy's
+0.13 (+0.32%)
Hikma Pharmaceuticals
+ (+0.00%)
Papa John's
+3.89 (+7.86%)
Domino's Pizza
-21 (-6.09%)
General Motors
-0.54 (-2.53%)
Ford
-0.185 (-3.67%)
Bank of America
-0.82 (-3.72%)
Kiniksa
+3.13 (+25.47%)
Eldorado Resorts
+2.32 (+19.27%)
Caesars
+0.37 (+5.78%)
Delphi Technologies
-2.29 (-22.23%)
BorgWarner
-0.18 (-0.73%)
RH
-17.2 (-14.62%)
Cronos Group
-0.695 (-10.93%)