Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell over 400 points early Friday morning after President Donald Trump announced that he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus.
As of 1:26 a.m., Dow futures had fallen 418 points, or 1.5% of the market’s current value. The S&P and Nasdaq futures fell by comparable values.
The president said he and the First Lady will be going into their “quarantine and recovery process immediately.”
The news of Trump’s positive test came hours after it was earlier confirmed that his close aide Hope Hicks had tested positive for the virus earlier on Thursday after exhibiting symptoms during Trump’s trip to Duluth, Minnesota, for a rally on Wednesday night.
Hicks had accompanied the president on that trip, and previously to the debate in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday night. The president faced Democrat candidate former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday night in that debate.
Trump’s announcement that he has contracted coronavirus after had earlier told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he and the First Lady would go into quarantine after exposure to Hicks. He also tweeted that earlier in the evening:
Hope Hicks, who has been working so hard without even taking a small break, has just tested positive for Covid 19. Terrible! The First Lady and I are waiting for our test results. In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process!
It is unclear how the president contracted the virus, and it is unclear exactly when he did so.
A letter from Trump’s physician released for the public says the president and First Lady are “both well at this time” and they intend to stay at the White House “during their convalescence.” The letter, from Dr. Sean Conley–Physician to the President and a U.S. Navy Commander–also says that Trump will continue to execute the duties of the office of the president during this time “without disruption.”
Friday morning will also see the release of the September jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics at 8:30 a.m., a key set of economic data that includes the number of jobs created or lost, and the unemployment rate.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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