Stock market live updates: Dow jumps 1,290 points in biggest-ever point gain

U.S. stocks skyrocketed on Monday, with the Dow setting a single-day point record in a broad-based rebound, after mounting coronavirus fears sent global markets into a week-long swoon.

The powerful rally sent the blue-chip Dow index soaring by more than 1,290 points, which beat the previous record set in December 2018 and snapped a brutal seven-session losing streak. On a percentage basis, the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq both saw their biggest move in over a year.

However, investors aren’t entirely convinced the worst is over, as the COVID-19 outbreak continues its inexorable spread across dozens of countries. Worldwide, the number of infections are closing in on 90,000, while the death toll has topped 3,000. At least for now, investors appear to be ignoring the new cases and deaths that have begun to affect the United States.

Last week, the rapid spread of coronavirus across countries outside of China rocked global markets, sending all three of the major indices into a correction in a matter of days, and pushing safe-haven bond yields to record lows. The sell-off contributed to nearly $7 trillion in market value being obliterated, according to S&P/Dow Jones’ Howard Silverblatt — only part of which was reversed by Monday’s surge.

“We’re not completely out of the woods,” Chris Pollard, head of market strategy at Cowen, told Yahoo Finance in an interview.

“The market by and large had been telling us this situation was going to deteriorate, [and] equities only caught on to that last week,” he said, adding that “any near-term bounce is unlikely to hold.”

Fears for the global economy are on the rise, as the coronavirus only just begins to surface in economic data — particularly in China, an epicenter of the coronavirus. The country’s Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) registered at 40.3 for February, representing the lowest reading in the 16-year history of the survey. Prints below 50 indicate contraction in a sector.

Also on Monday, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development lowered its 2020 global economic growth forecast to 2.4% from 2.9% amid the outbreak. That would mark the weakest pace of growth since 2009.

“Under other conditions, the economic data in the week ahead would set the tone, but in the current environment, they play second fiddle to market positioning and anxiety around the Covid-19,” Marc Chandler, managing director at Bannockburn Global Forex, said Sunday.

“Investors may be particularly sensitive to downward revisions as it may reflect the deterioration of conditions as new data was reported,” he added.

Here were the main moves in markets, as of 4:00 p.m. ET:

Officials in the Seattle area said four new individuals died from the novel coronavirus, in addition to the two reported over the weekend, public health officials said Monday. Six deaths in total have occurred in the U.S. as a result of COVID-19.

The four new deaths were centered among elderly individuals in a nursing facility in Kirkland, Washington.

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2:17 p.m. ET: Stocks touch highs of the day, Dow rallies 800+ points

Stocks continued their march higher during the afternoon session, with the Dow briefly advancing more than 3%.

At the highs of the day, the Dow added as many as 843 points.

Here were the main moves in markets, as of 2:17 p.m. ET:

• S&P 500 (^GSPC): +2.41% or +71.23 points to 3,025.45
• Dow (^DJI): +2.96% or +766.49 points to 26,175.85
• Nasdaq (^IXIC): +2.41% or +208.74 points to 8,775.58
• Crude oil (CL=F): +4.87% or +$2.18 to $46.94 a barrel
• Gold (GC=F): +1.82% or +$28.50 to $1,595.20 per ounce
• 10-year Treasury (^TNX): yielding 1.082%, down 4.4 basis points

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Israelis vote in 3rd election in a year focused on Netanyahu

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israelis were voting Monday in the country’s unprecedented third election in less than a year to decide whether longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stays in power despite his upcoming criminal trial on corruption charges.

Netanyahu, the longest serving leader in Israeli history, has been the caretaker prime minister for more than a year as a divided Israel has weathered two inconclusive elections and a prolonged political paralysis. With opinion polls forecasting another deadlock, Netanyahu is seeking a late surge in support to score a parliamentary majority along with other nationalist parties that will deliver him a fourth consecutive term in office, and fifth overall.

He faces a stiff challenge once again from retired military chief Benny Gantz, whose centrist Blue and White party is running even with Netanyahu’s Likud on a campaign message that Israel’s longtime prime minister is unfit to lead because of the serious charges against him.

Both parties appear unable to form a coalition with their traditional allies. With the prospect of a unity government between them seemingly off the table after a particularly nasty campaign, Monday’s vote may well turn into merely a preamble to another election.

“I hope that today marks the start of a healing process, where we can begin living together again,” Gantz said upon voting in his hometown of Rosh Ha’ayin in central Israel, warning voters not to “get drawn in by the lies or by the violence” after the acrimonious election campaign.

There was little fanfare in the days leading up to the vote, with a noticeable absence of campaign posters on the streets and public rallies that typically characterize to run-up to Israeli elections. With voter fatigue clearly a factor, turnout could prove to be decisive. Election day is a national holiday in Israel and the country usually boasts one of the highest voter turnouts among Western democracies. But the second repeat vote and fears of the new coronavirus, which has so far has been kept largely in check, look to hinder turnout.

Israel set up some 15 stations to allow voting by hundreds of Israelis who have been ordered to remain in home-quarantine after possible exposure to the virus.

Netanyahu has tried to portray himself as a statesman who is uniquely qualified to lead the country through challenging times. Gantz has tried to paint Netanyahu as divisive and scandal-plagued, offering himself as a calming influence and an honest alternative.

Gantz says he favors a national unity government with Likud, but only if it rids itself of its longtime leader because of the corruption charges against him. Netanyahu, who still enjoys widespread support in his party, insists he must remain prime minister in any unity deal.

With his career on the line, Netanyahu has campaigned furiously. He’s taken a hard turn to the right in hopes of rallying his nationalist base, promising to expand and annex West Bank settlements. In a campaign that has been marked by ugly smears, Netanyahu’s surrogates have spread unfounded allegations claiming Gantz is corrupt, unstable and susceptible to blackmail by Iran.

The most recent attempt appears to have backfired. Recordings have revealed Netanyahu lied on live television about not being involved in a plot to secretly record a Gantz consultant disparaging his boss. Channel 12 aired audio Sunday night of Netanyahu speaking to the rabbi who clandestinely recorded the Gantz adviser and discussing when it would be leaked to the media.

Netanyahu is desperate to score a narrow 61-seat majority in parliament with his hard-line religious and nationalist allies before heading to trial two weeks later. Netanyahu has failed to secure himself immunity from prosecution, but with a strong hold on power he could seek other avenues to derail the legal proceedings against him.

Netanyahu goes on trial March 17 for charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust stemming from accusations he accepted lavish gifts from billionaire friends and promised to promote advantageous legislation for a major newspaper in exchange for favorable coverage. He vowed he will prove his innocence in court.

Opinion polls forecast similar results to the previous two stalemates, and the deadlock raises the possibility of a fourth election in quick succession.

Maverick politician Avigdor Lieberman once again looms as a potential kingmaker, with neither Netanyahu nor Gantz able to secure a parliamentary majority without his support. Lieberman has not committed himself to either candidate, though he has promised there will not be a fourth election.

Polling stations opened across the country at 7 a.m. Monday with exit polls expected at the end of the voting day at 10 p.m. (20:00 GMT) Official results are projected to come in overnight.

That’s when the real jockeying may get underway, with attention shifting to President Reuven Rivlin who is responsible for choosing a candidate for prime minister. He is supposed to select the leader who he believes has the best chance of putting together a stable coalition. The honor usually goes to the head of the largest party, but not necessarily. Just as important is the number of lawmakers outside his own party who recommend him to the president.

Rivlin’s selection will then have up to six weeks to form a coalition. If he fails, another candidate then has 28 days to form an alternative coalition. If that effort fails, new elections would be forced. It’s a procedural process that remained hypothetical for Israel’s first 70 years of existence until it played out after the last election in September. Should results match current opinion polls, and all the major player stick to the campaign promises, it may well repeat itself.

“This is usually a holiday, but to be honest I have no festivity in me just a sense of deep shame before you, the citizens of Israel,” Rivlin said as he cast his ballot. “We don’t deserve this. We don’t deserve another horrible and filthy campaign like the one that ends today and we don’t deserve this endless instability. We deserve a government that will work for us.”

Obama calls Biden to congratulate him on South Carolina, report says

Former President Barack Obama—who vowed not to endorse any candidate during the primary—congratulated his former vice president, Joe Biden, over his solid win in South Carolina on Saturday, which injected life into his campaign and ended Mayor Pete Buttiegieg's run.
Bloomberg News, citing two people familiar to the call, reported that the former president plans to let the primaries play out, and then work to unify the party and defeat President Trump.
Biden suffered poor results in Iowa's caucuses and New Hampshire’s primary, but he captured 48 percent of Democratic presidential primary voters in South Carolina, crushing Sen. Bernie Sanders by nearly 30 percentage points in the process.
Biden, who appeared emboldened, took a swipe at one of Sanders' signature lines during an appearance on "Fox New Sunday": "The people aren’t looking for revolution. They’re looking for results."
Obama’s decision not to endorse a candidate during the primary is a deliberate one. The Bloomberg report said the phone call on Saturday night, although falling short of an endorsement, shows that the two are still close.
Biden has been known to talk about his former boss while on the campaign trail. But if their relationship is still close,  it appears feelings with David  Axelrod, Obama's former top strategist, has cooled.
Axelrod has in the past described Biden as “confused” and suggested he looked like “part of the past rather than the future,” after a heated exchange during a June debate between Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser, Ronn Blitzer and the Associated Press contributed to this report

Klobuchar rally cancelled as protesters take over stage protesting a murder prosecution

The rally was eventually cancelled by the Klobuchar campaign after both sides failed to reach an agreement, the report said.
Prior to the rally’s start, protesters chanted “Free Myon,” while “Black Lives Matter” chants also filled the room.

Protestors on stage during a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) on March 1, 2020 in St Louis Park, Minnesota.  (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Activists have called on Klobuchar to quit the presidential campaign over the past few weeks, FOX 9 reported.
Klobuchar has used the case during the 2020 Democratic primary as evidence she sought justice on behalf of families in the black community. But an Associated Press investigation raised issues with the handling of the case.
The Hennepin County Attorney released a statement calling the case "politicized."

An Associated Press investigation into the 17-year-old case uncovered new evidence and myriad inconsistencies, raising questions about whether Myon Burrell was railroaded by police.
Asked for comment on the case, a Klobuchar campaign spokesperson told the AP at the time that Burrell was tried and convicted of Tyesha’s murder twice, and the second trial occurred when Klobuchar was no longer the Hennepin County Attorney.
If there was new evidence, she said, it should be immediately reviewed by the court.
The Associated Press contributed to this report

Trump says Buttigieg's exit a sign Dems trying to stop Bernie Sanders

Moments after former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg told supporters he's ending his presidential campaign Sunday, President Trump said it reflected the growing pressure among more moderate Democrats to consolidate in order to blunt the rise of progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Trump tweeted: "Pete Buttigieg is OUT. All of his SuperTuesday votes will to Sleepy Joe Biden. Great timing. This is the REAL beginning of the Dems taking Bernie out of play - NO NOMINATION, AGAIN!"
Buttigieg previously had said Sanders was too liberal to be elected.
Buttigieg's withdrawal came just days before voters in 14 states are set to head to the polls on Super Tuesday, where one-third of all delegates for the nomination will be at stake.
His exit likely will harm frontrunner Sanders by providing a coalescing boost to more moderate candidates, as Buttigieg had gone on the offensive against the Vermont senator and sought to appeal to the centrist base of the party.
Sanders’ delegate lead over Joe Biden has shrunk from 30 to 8 after Biden’s big win in the South Carolina primary.
With 54 delegates at stake in South Carolina, the former vice president picked up 35 to Sanders’ 13, according to The Associated Press' delegate count. Six delegates remained to be allocated pending final vote totals.
Heading into key Super Tuesday contests, Sanders has led the overall race for delegates with 58 while Biden had 50. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., had 8 and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., had 7. It takes 1,991 delegates to win.
Buttigieg, the first openly gay candidate to seriously contend for the presidency, tried to make the case that his party thrived when it embraced candidates who offered generational change.
But, the 38-year-old Afghanistan war veteran ended up being more successful at winning older voters while Sanders, 78, captured the energy of younger voters.
"He's not going anywhere," Trump said in January. "He was a lousy mayor of a place that is not doing well -- [but] Indiana is doing unbelievably well."
He called South Bend, a city of more than 100,000 people a few miles south of the Michigan line, "badly run" under Buttigieg, while the Hoosier State on the whole had "the best year they've ever had" in 2019.
Last year, the president, known for bullying schoolyard nicknames for his political rivals, compared Buttigieg to the longtime mascot for Mad magazine.
“Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States,” the president said, referring to the decades-old Mad character.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Trump, on 1st death from virus in US: ’No reason to panic”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking to reassure the American public, President Donald Trump said there was “no reason to panic” as the new coronavirus claimed its first victim inside the U.S. The White House also announced new restrictions on international travel to prevent its spread.

Trump, speaking Saturday only moments after the death in Washington state was announced, took a more measured approach a day after he complained that the virus threat was being overblown and that his political enemies were perpetuating a “hoax.”

“This is very serious stuff,” he said, but still insisted the criticism of his administration’s handling of the virus outbreak was a hoax.

Trump appeared at a hastily called news conference in the White House briefing room with Vice President Mike Pence and top public health officials to announce that the U.S. was banning travel to Iran and urging Americans not to travel to regions of Italy and South Korea where the virus has been prevalent.

He said 22 people in the U.S. had been stricken by the new coronavirus, of whom one had died while four were deemed “very ill.” Additional cases were “likely,” he added.

Trump said he was considering additional restrictions, including closing the U.S. border with Mexico in response to the virus’ spread, but later added: “This is not a border that seems to be much of a problem right now.”

“We’re thinking about all borders,” he said.

Travel to Iran is already quite limited, though some families are allowed to travel there on a visa. It is one of the seven initial countries on Trump’s travel ban list, which means travel from Iran also is already severely restricted.

Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there was “no evidence of link to travel” abroad in the case of the man who died. The patient was described as being in his late 50s and having a high health risk before contracting the virus. Redfield said the CDC mistakenly told Trump in an earlier briefing that the victim was a woman.

On Friday, health officials confirmed a third case of coronavirus in the U.S. in a person who hadn’t traveled internationally or had close contact with anyone who was known to have the virus. The U.S. has about 60 confirmed cases. Trump’s tally appeared to exclude cases of Americans repatriated from China or evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

The Washington case was the first death in U.S. but not first American to die: A 60-year-old U.S. citizen died in Wuhan in early February.

Trump said healthy Americans should be able to recover if they contract the new virus, as he tried to reassure Americans and global markets spooked by the virus threat.

He encouraged Americans not to alter their daily routines, saying the country is “super prepared” for a wider outbreak, adding “there’s no reason to panic at all.”

He added he wasn’t altering his own routine either. “You’re talking about 22 people right now in this whole very vast country. I think we’ll be in very good shape.”

The president also said he would be meeting with pharmaceutical companies at the White House on Monday to discuss efforts to develop a vaccine to counter the virus.

Trump spoke a day after he had denounced criticism of his response to the threat as a “hoax” cooked up by his political enemies. Speaking at a rally in South Carolina he accused Democrats of “politicizing” the coronavirus threat and boasted about preventive steps he’s ordered in an attempt to keep the virus that originated in China from spreading across the United States. Those steps include barring entry by most foreign nationals who had recently visited China.

“They tried the impeachment hoax. ... This is their new hoax,” Trump said of Democratic denunciations of his administration’s coronavirus response.

Trump said Saturday he was not trying to minimize the threat of the virus.

“Again, the hoax was used in respect to Democrats and what they were saying,” he said.

Some Democrats have said Trump should have acted sooner to bolster the U.S. response to the virus. Democratic and Republican lawmakers also have said his request for an additional $2.5 billion to defend against the virus isn’t enough. They’ve signaled they will provide substantially more funding.

Trump said Democrats want him to fail and argued that steps he’s taken so far have kept cases to a minimum and prevented virus deaths in the U.S.

But Trump defended his language and emphasized he was not referring to the virus as a hoax, saying that his description referred to “the action that they take to try and pin this on somebody because we’ve done such a good job.”

As global markets plunged this week, Trump predicted they will come back, and encouraged the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.

“The markets will all come back,” he said. “I think the Fed has a very important role, especially psychological. If you look at it, the Fed has a massive impact.”

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Miller reported from Mountain Lake, Florida. Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

Tom Steyer ends campaign after Biden wins South Carolina primary

Billionaire and environmental activist Tom Steyer ended his presidential bid Saturday, after what appeared to be a third-place finish in South Carolina's Democratic presidential primary.
Steyer made the announcement during his post-primary rally in South Carolina and told voters he no longer sees a viable path forward to winning the White House.
"We were disappointed with where we came out. I think we got one or two delegates from congressional districts, which I thank South Carolina for," he said. "But I said if I didn't see a path to winning, that I'd suspend my campaign. And honestly, I can't see a path where I can win the presidency."
Steyer promised to remain involved in political issues across the country and said any one of the Democratic candidates for president would be better than President Trump. He also took a shot at Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina.
"Every Democrat is a million times better than Trump," he added. "Trump is a disaster. ... Lindsey Graham's a disaster. He's a disaster for the people here."
President Trump later responded on Twitter, mocking Steyer who, before he announced his candidacy, had spent millions on an effort to have Trump impeached -- only to see the president acquitted Feb. 5.
"Tom Steyer who, other than Mini Mike Bloomberg, spent more dollars for NOTHING than any candidate in history, quit the race today proclaiming how thrilled he was to be a part of the Democrat Clown Show," Trump wrote. "Go away Tom and save whatever little money you have left!"
Steyer's withdrawal came shortly after former Vice President Joe Biden won the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary. Fox News projected Sen. Bernie Sanders would finish in second place, with Steyer in third.
Steyer, who reportedly spent over $250 million on his campaign, has put much of his energy into a good performance in the Palmetto State. He had told supporters and volunteers gathered at his South Carolina campaign headquarters Saturday that “there is an old saying when you run a race, which is that you don’t run to the end, you run through the tape. And that is exactly where we are today.”
Steyer had a string of lackluster single-digit finishes in the Iowa caucuses Feb. 3, the New Hampshire primary Feb. 10, and the Nevada caucuses Feb. 22. But he heavily courted black voters and was optimistic things would be different Saturday in South Carolina, where African-Americans were expected to make up roughly 60 percent of the Democratic presidential primary electorate.
"We have a very good team here. I’ve spent a lot of time on the ground and I’m talking straightforwardly about issues," he said. "This is a heavily African-American state. I talk very straightforwardly about race. I’m the only person talking about reparations for slavery. I think I’ve been here the most and looked most people in the eye and talked most straightforwardly and I think that’s why.”
Fox News' Patrick Ward and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

Chris Matthews absent from MSNBC's primary coverage after sexism allegations, on-air slip-ups

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews was noticebaly absent from the network’s South Carolina primary coverage Saturday evening, one day after being accused of “sexist” behavior by a former network contributor -- and then later misidentifying a politician while on the air.
Earlier in the week, Matthews had issued an on-air apology after drawing backlash for comparing the Nevada caucus victory of Sen. Bernie Sanders to the 1940 invasion of France by the Nazis.
In an op-ed for GQ on Friday, journalist Laura Bassett claimed Matthews had used sexist language when she would visit the MSNBC studio to appear on his show as a guest.
She recalled Matthews looking at her in an adjacent makeup chair before an appearance in 2016 and asking: 'Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?'" Bassett said she laughed nervously but Matthews kept making comments to the makeup artist. “Keep putting makeup on her, I’ll fall in love with her," Matthews allegedly said.
She said he made another comment about her makeup during a separate appearance. "Make sure you wipe this off her face after the show,” she wrote he said to the makeup artist. “We don’t make her up so some guy at a bar can look at her like this.”
Bassett said she decided to write the op-ed because of a “sexist” interview Matthews did with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., after the last debate in which he pressed her about her accusation that former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg has once told a woman at his company to “kill” her unborn baby. Bloomberg denies he said it.
A feminist group has called for Matthews' firing over the interview.
Bassett said she wrote a similar op-ed in 2017 without naming Matthews because she was afraid to publicly accuse him at the time, but wrote many women reached out to her saying they knew who she was talking about.
She said while she didn't think Matthews' behavior rose to the level of criminal sexual harassment, it undermined her ability to do her job.
In 2017, it was reported that NBC paid $40,000 to a producer on Matthews’ show who claimed he sexually harassed her.
MSNBC has not confirmed the amount paid to the woman, nor has the network said whether the payment was made to settle a harassment claim.
An MSNBC spokesperson said at the time that executives were told that Matthews made inappropriate jokes and comments about the woman in front of others, that the matter was reviewed and it was determined the comments were inappropriate and made in poor taste but were never meant as propositions.
NBC did not immediately respond to Fox News' after-hours request for comment.

'Mistaken identity'

Then during his "Hardball" broadcast Friday, Matthews mistook Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jaime Harrison, chalking it up as a case of "mistaken identity."
Harrison was appearing on "Hardball" to discuss his campaign to unseat Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., but the interview went off the rails when Matthews ran a clip of Scott standing beside Graham at that evening's Trump rally in North Charleston and assumed it was Harrison.
Both Scott and Harrison are African-American.
"Jaime, I see you standing next to the guy you're going to beat right there, maybe," he said. "Maybe? Maybe, maybe? Lindsey Graham?"
Soon Matthews realized his error and apologized to Harrison.
"What am I saying? Big mistake. Mistaken identity, sir. Sorry," Matthews said.
Harrison appeared to roll his eyes and looked shocked, but kept a smile on his face and answered Matthews' question.

'I will strive to do a better job'

Matthews also took fire for a comment he made about Sanders’ decisive victory in Nevada last weekend, comparing the candidate to the Nazis' defeat of France during World War II.
“I'm reading last night about the fall of France in the summer of 1940," Matthews said during the network's Nevada coverage. "And the general calls up Churchill and says, ‘It’s over,’ and Churchill says, ‘How can it be? You got the greatest army in Europe. How can it be over?’ He said, ‘It's over.’”
But many viewers were outraged by the comments -- and Matthews apologized Monday.
"Senator Sanders, I'm sorry for comparing anything from that tragic era in which so many suffered, especially the Jewish people, to an electorate result in which you were the well-deserved winner," Matthews said. "This is going to be a hard-fought, heated campaign of ideas. In the days and weeks and months ahead, I will strive to do a better job myself of elevating the political discussion. Congratulations, by the way, to you, Senator Sanders, and to your supporters on a tremendous win down in Nevada."
Fox News' Sam Dorman, Nick Givas and Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this story.