Dow down more than 400 points

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday declined 445.41 points, while the S&P 500 fell 2.2 percent and the Nasdaq fell 1.4 percent.

The Dow has been bouncing up and down this week, posting a more than 300 point decline Monday before rebounding more than 500 points on Tuesday and then falling more than 400 points on Wednesday.

Retail sales in March experienced a steep 8.7 percent decline amid the coronavirus pandemic which has crushed portions of the nation's business sector and left many Americans unemployed. This marks the biggest one-month decrease since 1992 when the government began tracking the information.

“If this is a precursor to what we can expect throughout the U.S. ... there’s no word for it,” Prudential Financial Chief Market Strategest Quincy Crosby said, according to CNBC. “The reflects the complete shutdown of the economy.”

"The question is how quickly can the economy come back," Krosby said.

Major banks including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup have each reported more than 40 percent decreases in their first-quarter earnings.

There have been rising hopes that the health crisis will relent and the nation's economy will soon return to more normal operations.

President Trump on Tuesday said that perhaps some states can reopen even before May 1.