Business Notes: Up Day On Wall Street After Record-Setting Sell-Off

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- In today's Business Notes:

It is St. Patrick's Day, so what better day for the stock markets to have arrows that are painted green.

It was an up day on Wall Street on Tuesday, and normally the size of gains for the markets would make people smile.

After yesterday's record-setting sell-off, the gains today seem minimal.

Still, it was a substantial gain today.

Investors were encouraged when the Pres. Donald Trump administration announced several more actions it is taking to help blunt the economic impact of the virus, not only on businesses but also on individuals.

Some of those actions include making more money available for short-term lending, extending the tax deadline 90 days for some Americans and a proposal for the government to send checks to the American people.

There would also be some help for American businesses that are being hit hard by actions taken to try to fight the virus.

We already know the airline industry has been hit hard.

Now today, some indications about the hotel industry. Marriott is going to lay off tens of thousands of employees and close hotels. The head of Hilton Hotels says occupancy is down to 15 percent.

One of the economic reports released today shows that Americans pulled back on their spending in February as concerns started to mount over the coronavirus.

According to the Commerce Department, retail sales were down by half of a percent last month. That is important because consumer spending accounts for roughly 70 percent of the economy.

With that kind of information, it raises the question of a recession, and the president admits there is the possibility of a recession.

He also said his focus right now is on conquering the virus, and if that happens any recession will be a short one and he believes the economy and the stock market will come roaring back.

On the subject of the stock market and the huge swings we have been seeing, the treasury secretary says there is no plan to close the stock markets, although there has been some talk about changing the hours for the markets.

Overall, it was a much better day today than yesterday in the stock markets.

Here are the closing numbers:

The Dow was up 1,048.86 or 5.20% to stand at 21,237.38.

The NASDAQ surged ahead 430.19. That is a gain of 6.23%. The NASDAQ composite index is now 7,334.78.

And the S&P 500 posted a gain of 143.06, up an even 6 % t0 2,529.19.