Dow futures rose 267 points, indicating a gain of about 201 points at the open on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 4.4%, or 973.65 points, lower at 20,943.51. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also closed 4.4% lower, at 2,470.50 and 7,360.58, respectively. The White House on released new projections for 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the U.S. from the coronavirus pandemic even if current social-distancing guidelines are maintained. Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases world-wide rose to 862,234 on Wednesday, while the num
ber of deaths rose to 42,404 according to aggregated data from Johns Hopkins University.
In economic news, Automatic Data Processing ADP, -5.09% reported the U.S. economy shed 27,000 private-sector jobs in March, though the data is expected to be of little use in predicting the official unemployment numbers due on Friday due to distortions created by the pandemic.