Futures fall after strong three-day rally as virus threat continues

By Uday Sampath Kumar

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures fell on Friday, a day after the S&P 500 and Dow posted their best three-day run since the 1930s, as the United States faced the prospect of becoming the next global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite a jittery start to the week, all three major indexes have jumped between 13.3% and 17.6% so far after unprecedented policy easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve and hopes of a $2.2 trillion government stimulus aid bill.

Debate on the proposal, aimed at flooding the country with cash in a bid to counter the economic impact of the intensifying outbreak, is scheduled to start in the U.S. House of Representatives later on Friday.

At 05:30 a.m. EDT, Dow e-minis <1YMcv1> were down 443 points, or 1.99%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 51.5 points, or 1.97% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 161 points, or 2.05%.

SPDR S&P 500 ETFs were down 1.99%.

The S&P 500 index <.SPX> closed up 6.24% at 2,630.07 on Thursday.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)