U.S. stock futures drop after Trump fails to reassure traders

U.S. stock futures were down sharply Thursday, after a news conference by President Donald Trump failed to reassure investors and as a new case of coronavirus with no known origin was discovered in California.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YM00, -0.61%   sank more than 200 points, but nearly 400 points at one stage, while S&P 500 ES00, -0.61%   and Nasdaq Composite futures NQ00, -0.61%   were also off by 0.7%. European stocks opened sharply lower, with the Stoxx Europe 600 index SXXP, -1.99%   dropping 2.3%.

Earlier Wednesday, Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +1.25%  warned it won’t meet its quarterly forecasts due to the effects of the outbreak, likely signaling more widespread guidance misses across the tech industry.

On Wall Street, the Dow and S&P 500 index fell for a fifth straight day on continued fears of the coronavirus outbreak’s impact on global economic growth. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.46%   fell 123.77 points, or 0.5%, to settle at 26,957.50, marking the worst five-day point drop for the blue-chip index on record.

The S&P 500 SPX, -0.38%   shed 11.82 points, or 0.4%, to close at 3,116.39, while the Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.17%   added 15.16 points, or 0.2%, to close at 8,980.77, snapping a four-day losing streak.