US, Asian Shares fall after Trump, First Lady tests Positive for COVID-19

As soon as the news broke out about President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for the new coronavirus, U.S. stock futures and Asian shares fell on Friday.

The future contracts for both the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials lost 1.9%. Oil prices also slipped.

The Nikkei 225 index shed strong early gains, losing 0.8% to 22,999.75 after the Tokyo Stock Exchange resumed trading following an all-day outage due to a technical failure.

Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 slipped 1% to 5,815.90.

Shares in Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia also fell.

U.S. benchmark crude lost $1.08 to $37.64 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

It gave up $1.50 to $38.72 on Thursday. Brent crude, the international standard, lost $1.05 to $39.88 per barrel.

The dollar weakened to 105.05 Japanese yen from 105.54 yen. The euro weakened to $1.1731 from $1.1747.

Earlier today Donald Trump tweeted that he and the first lady, Melania Trump, have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!

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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020

The first lady tweeted: “As too many Americans have done this year, @potus & I are quarantining at home after testing positive for COVID-19. We are feeling good & I have postponed all upcoming engagements. Please be sure you are staying safe & we will all get through this together.”

As too many Americans have done this year, @potus & I are quarantining at home after testing positive for COVID-19. We are feeling good & I have postponed all upcoming engagements. Please be sure you are staying safe & we will all get through this together.

— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) October 2, 2020