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Shares, oil prices sink after President Trump tests positive for virus

Dow opens lower following Wednesday's sharp drop
Posted at 2:09 AM, Oct 02, 2020
and last updated 2020-10-02 02:09:07-04

U.S. stock futures and Asian shares have fallen after President Donald Trump said he and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for the new coronavirus.

The future contracts for both the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials lost 1.9%. Oil prices also slipped.

Trump tweeted news of his test results just hours after the White House announced that senior aide Hope Hicks had come down with the virus after traveling with the president several times this week.

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Trading in Asia was thin, with markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong closed. The Nikkei 225 index shed strong early gains after the Tokyo Stock Exchange resumed trading Friday following an all day outage due to a technical failure.