US Stocks Mostly Up But Volatile Amid COVID-19 Worries

Wall Street stocks were mostly higher early Friday in choppy trading as markets assess the potential economic fallout from rising coronavirus cases in the US, the world's biggest economy

New York, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Jul, 2020 ) :Wall Street stocks were mostly higher early Friday in choppy trading as markets assess the potential economic fallout from rising coronavirus cases in the US, the world's biggest economy.

About 75 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.7 percent to 25,883.87.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.3 percent to 3,161.51, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.1 percent to 10,540.87, pulling back slightly from a record.

Investors have largely shrugged off the jump in coronavirus cases in Florida, Texas and other states, partly because the US death rate has been much lower than earlier this spring.

But a number of states have reported record deaths in recent days, raising fears that the trend is reversing.

However, markets were lifted by an announcement Friday from Gilead Sciences that its remdesivir drug showed a 62 percent reduction in the risk of mortality during a clinical trial. Shares of Gilead rose 2.7 percent.