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Stocks Roar Back Following Trump Declaration of National Emergency Over Coronavirus

(Reuters) – Wall Street clawed back some losses on Friday after its biggest one-day decline in three decades, as investors set their hopes on more global fiscal stimulus to stem a coronavirus-driven global recession.

All three main indexes jumped more than 6 percent in early trading before paring gains on reports President Donald Trump was set to declare a national emergency to contain the spread of the deadly pathogen.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives will pass a coronavirus economic aid package on Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, but it was unclear whether Trump and his fellow Republicans would support it.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 833.72 points, or 3.93 percent, to 22,034.34, the S&P 500 gained 93.62 points, or 3.77 percent, to 2,574.26 and the Nasdaq Composite added 257.23 points, or 3.57 percent, to 7,459.04.

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All the main S&P 500 sub-indexes were trading higher, with financial stocks rising 6.94 percent as expectations of further liquidity measures by the Federal Reserve pushed up Treasury yields, in what has become a very thin market.

Oil also looked set to end the week with a silver lining, as both Brent and WTI crude settled higher after a near-collapse in prices on Monday due to a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. The S&P 500 energy index added 1.66 percent.

Travel stocks, hammered in the rout, were trading higher, with the S&P 1500 airlines index up 3.66%

The S&P 500 posted no new 52-week highs and 118 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded two new highs and 656 new lows.

The indexes were still about 25 percent below record highs hit in mid-February, and were on track for their biggest weekly declines since October 2008, the height of the financial crisis.

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(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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