Dow falls more than 450 points on Tuesday

Even as areas of the country start reopening, the economy has suffered significant damage during the pandemic

Published: May 12, 2020 4:01pm

Updated: May 12, 2020 5:46pm

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Tuesday fell 457.21 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq dropped 2.1 percent and more than 2 percent, respectively, ending the Nasdaq's six straight days of gains.

Major stocks posted losses for the day including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Nike, Disney, Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and Netflix.

Even as areas of the nation begin reopening following coronavirus-related lockdowns, the economy has suffered tremendous damage during the pandemic.

More than 33 million people have filed for unemployment during a seven week period. More than 20 million jobs were lost in April and unemployment shot up to 14.7 percent.

While delivering congressional testimony on Tuesday, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that if areas do not properly follow the checkpoints regarding reopening that could cause an outbreak and inhibit economic progress.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has introduced legislation authorizing President Trump to sanction China if the Asian nation fails to meet certain requirements including providing its cooperation in investigations relating to the virus outbreak. The legislation is backed by several other Senate Republicans.