Nope!  The markets are not quite ready to calm down yet, not with this perfect trifecta of no stimulus, coronavirus spiraling, and election uncertainty. They were hoping Monday was the worst of it but, truly, it’s just going to keep going until the election is settled. And the chances of it being settled before next Friday are slim. The short-sellers are going to make out on this one. Twelve states have set hospitalization records, Germany and France are going into another lockdown, and as today’s expert says, “Obviously the virus is out of control.”  The Dow was going down all day, down almost 700 by 3:30, then dove more than 200 more points in the final half hour due to concerns that there will be no declared winner come Tuesday night, adding to worries that the election might be contested, for a long while now considered the worst-cast scenario.  Even tech lost today. The good news:  Q3 continues to go better than expected and today was upgraded again from a 16.2% loss yesterday to a 14.8% loss today.  Volume, which has been running below average for some time now was way above average today at 11 billion. Yes! Everyone’s nervous! 

WED  OCTOBER 28, 2020  4:35 PM 

Wall Street sinks 3%, Dow at late July lows as pandemic surges

By Herbert Lash

DJ: 27,463.19  -222.19       NAS: 11,431.35  +72.41        S&P: 3,390.68  -10.29      10/27

DJ: 26,519.95  -943.24       NAS: 11,004.87  -426.48       S&P: 3,271.03  -119.65    10/28

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks tumbled on Wednesday, with the Dow closing at lows last seen in late July, as coronavirus cases soared globally and investors worried about the possibility of a contested U.S. presidential election next week.  The spiraling pandemic and Washington’s failure to reach a deal on new fiscal stimulus before the Nov. 3 election drove all three stock indexes to close more than 3% lower in heavy trade.  The sell-off accelerated during the session’s final minutes,with both the Dow and benchmark S&P 500 posting their biggest single-day declines since June 11.

Twelve U.S. states set records for hospitalized COVID-19 patients, while Germany and France announced plans to shut large swathes of public life for a month as the pandemic surged across Europe.  “Obviously the virus is out of control. It’s spiking, it’s bad,” said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management Corp in Chicago. “The concept that ... it’s going to disappear is just a faulty assumption.”

Shares of hotels, airlines and other leisure-related companies sensitive to COVID-19-related turmoil sank, with the S&P 1500 airlines index .SPCOMAIR falling 4.3%. The energy index .SPNY slid 4.2% as oil prices tumbled on fears of a deeper drop in fuel demand. [O/R]  With just six days to the election, Wall Street's fear gauge .VIX spiked to its highest level since June 15. Concerns that a winner might not be declared the night of Nov. 3 also spurred the wide sell-off.

Democratic challenger Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump nationally by 10 percentage points, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, but the competition is tighter in swing states, which will decide the victor.  Investors are worried about various potential outcomes: that the election may be contested; a “blue wave” gives Biden a victory and his Democrats control of Congress; or that Trump gets re-elected, said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance in Charlotte, North Carolina.  “As people run through the likely scenarios of what could happen with the election, there’s no short-term good answer,” he said.

Losses were broad-based with technology stocks .SPLRCT, down 4.33%, weighing the most.  The Big Tech companies - Apple AAPL.O, Alphabet GOOGL.O and Facebook FB.O - which are due to report results on Thursday, all fell 4.6% or more. With Microsoft MSFT.O and Amazon.com AMZN.O, they weighed the most on the S&P 500.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 943.24 points, or 3.43%, to 26,519.95, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 119.65 points, or 3.53%, to 3,271.03 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 426.48 points, or 3.73%, to 11,004.87.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 11.00 billion shares.

Of the 206 S&P 500 companies that have reported third-quarter earnings so far, about 83% have topped expectations, according to Refinitiv data. But earnings on average are expected to fall 14.8% from a year earlier.

General Electric Co GE.N was one bright spot, jumping 8% after posting a surprise quarterly profit and a positive cash flow on the back of cost cuts and improvements in its power and renewable energy businesses.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 10.08-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 6.28-to-1 ratio favored decliners.  The S&P 500 posted one new 52-week highs and nine new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 15 new highs and 110 new lows.