Financial market impacts announces a 50 basis point (0.5% percentage point) interest rate cut in light of "evolving risks to economic activity." On February 27, 2020, the
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped 1,191 points, the
largest single-day point drop in the index's history at the time; some attributed the drop to anxiety about the epidemic. The same day, the S&P 500 logged a 4.4% decline. The record was beaten five more times during the outbreak on March9 (2,013), March 11 (1,465), March 12 (2,353), and finally set the current record for most points lost in a single day by losing 2,997 points on March 16. It once again fell another 1,338 points on March 18. On March 13, the stock market rebounded for the single largest one-day point gain in the market's history by gaining 1,985 points after Trump declared a state of national emergency to free up resources to combat the virus. The six business days it took for the
S&P 500 Index to drop 10% (from February 20 to 27) "marked the quickest 10% decline from an all-time high in the index's history." Stock index
futures declined sharply during Trump's March 11 address, and the
Dow Jones declined 10% the following day—the largest daily decline since
Black Monday in 1987—despite the Federal Reserve also announcing it would inject $1.5 trillion into money markets. By March 18, investors were shunning even assets considered safe havens during economic crises, such as government bonds and gold, moving into cash positions. By March 20, the Dow Jones was below the level when President Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017, having fallen 35% from its February peak. The markets rallied between March 23 and 26, with the Dow having its best three-day gain since 1931. On March 27, the Dow fell 3.5% and the S&P 500 fell 3.2%. The NASDAQ Index also fell.
Boeing fell 10%, while
Exxon and
Disney each fell 6%. In February 2020, the American companies
Apple Inc. and
Microsoft began lowering expectations for revenue because of supply chain disruptions in China caused by the virus. In a February 27 note to clients,
Goldman Sachs said it expects no earnings growth for U.S. companies in 2020 as a result of the virus, at a time when the consensus forecast of Wall Street expected "earnings to climb 7%." On March 20, 2020, as part of an
SEC filing,
AT&T cancelled all
stock buyback plans included a plan to repurchase stock worth $4 billion during the second quarter. The reasons AT&T gave for the cancellation was to invest the money into its networks and in taking care of its employees during the pandemic. In response to the economic damage caused by the pandemic, some economists have advocated for financial support from the government for individual Americans and for banks and businesses. Financial analyst
Karen Petrou objected to government intervention on the grounds that it would alter the role of the
Federal Reserve and enshrine
moral hazard as a defining market principle. Several officials
faced allegations of
insider trading, citing sales of their stock portfolios that coincided with private briefings and other statements regarding COVID-19, and almost immediately preceding
a major stock market crash on February 20.
Senate Intelligence Committee chairman
Richard Burr sold up to $1.7 million of stocks while making public statements of reassurances of the government's level of COVID-19 preparedness. Georgia senator
Kelly Loeffler sold tens of millions of dollars' worth of stocks after a closed briefing on the COVID-19. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a member of the Senate intelligence committee, sold between $1.5m and $6m in stock of Allogene Therapeutics, a biotechnology company. U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi's husband purchased $3.3 million worth of technology stocks expected to surge during a lockdown. On May 14, after having had a warrant served against him by the FBI, Burr announced that he would step down from his position during the investigation. In 2021, 79% of US firms stated that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a long-term influence on requirements and priorities in investment. The supply of coins in the U.S. banking system was lowered to the point of rationing, due to many stores being closed, many coin-counting machines being unavailable, and fewer coins produced by the U.S. mint to protect employees. However, as the economy recovered from COVID-19, some such as J.P. Morgan Chase strategist Marko Kolanovic expected the U.S. stock market surge that happened since the trough to continue into 2021.
Global Supply Chain Due to lockdowns, the global trade volume were contracted by 16% in the first two quarters of 2020. The effects on the global supply chain were devastating, as the production of raw materials, intermediate goods, and finished goods suddenly became scarce due to labor shortages. Companies that rely on the technique of Just-In-Time (JIT) experienced significant inventory shortages. While JIT is an effective method that reduces excess inventories and relieves costs for companies, it increases firms' vulnerability to supply shocks. Supply chain disruptions should not be overlooked, 80% of firms view supply chain resilience as a top priority.
Energy sector The U.S. oil, gas and chemicals industry lost 107,000 jobs between March and August 2020, according to Deloitte. When demand for jet fuel, diesel and gasoline suddenly dropped, oil was in oversupply.
Health care sector Production of emergency supplies sman sews
cloth face masks on April6, 2020. In response to shortages, some alcoholic beverage facilities started manufacturing and distributing alcohol-based
hand sanitizer.
General Motors opened its manufacturing, logistics, and purchasing infrastructure for use by Ventec, a Washington State manufacturer of medical ventilators. As medical mask manufacturers hired hundreds of new workers and increased output, in response to urgent requests from hospital workers, volunteers with home sewing machines started producing thousands of non-medical masks which can be sterilized and re-used. Fabric was bought privately or donated by
Joann Fabrics. The CDC recommended the use of homemade masks (preferably in combination with a full-face splash shield) only as a "last resort" when no other respiratory protective technologies were available, including reused professional masks.
Bauer Hockey began manufacturing face shields for medical applications on March 26. Some U.S. officials and commentators criticized the outsourcing of critical materials—like the production of essential medical supplies—to China.
International aid Chinese billionaire
Jack Ma donated COVID-19 test kits and face masks to the United States. The Russian government sent a cargo plane with ventilators and face masks.
Surge in medical personnel Several states and non-profit groups started recruiting retired medical personnel to increase staffing in hospitals and at temporary facilities. Some jurisdictions granted emergency medical licenses to inactive doctors, and incoming resident doctors and interns, and expanded the tasks that nurses were allowed to do.
Telemedicine The COVID-19 pandemic led to a sharp increase in the use of
telemedical services in the United States, specifically for COVID-19 screening and triage. , three companies offered free telemedical screenings for COVID-19 in the United States: K Health (routed through an AI
chatbot),
Ro (routed through an AI chatbot), and GoodRx (offered through its HeyDoctor platform).
Meat industry , Maryland
Meatpacking plants experienced sporadic shutdowns as many workers contracted COVID-19, resulting in spot meat shortages around the country. According to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report stating that by April 27, out of 130,578 workers nationwide, at least 4,913 meat and poultry plant workers had COVID-19. Cases were reported in 115 plants located in 19 states, and at least 20 people had died. At least 2
USDA meat inspectors died of COVID-19, 137 tested positive, and 704 others refused to work due to lack of protective equipment in a high-risk environment. As of April 22, 2020, about 25% of the pork processing capacity of the nation had been cut. Beginning in late March 2020, weekly beef production was down 19% year-over-year. As the fastest-growing mass-market meat animal in the United States, chickens were the most vulnerable to farms running out of capacity to hold an excess population. At least two million chickens were euthanized on farms in Delaware and Maryland rather than slaughtered for meat, due to lack of capacity to process them for human consumption. By May 5, around 18% of
Wendy's restaurants (concentrated in certain geographic areas of the country) were unable to serve beef sandwiches, but still had chicken available. Wendy's uses fresh beef; in contrast,
McDonald's, which uses frozen beef, was unaffected. Hundreds of millions of pounds of beef and pork remain in cold storage, originally intended for restaurants; the USDA started allowing this meat to be sold at grocery stores, though it must be cut down by store workers into consumer-sized packages.
Restaurant industry The U.S. restaurant industry was projected to have $899 billion in sales for 2020 by the
National Restaurant Association, the main trade association for the industry in the United States. The industry as a whole as of February 2020 employed more than 15 million people, representing 10 percent of the workforce directly. The next day, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland followed suit. Groups of restaurateurs in New York City and Cincinnati called on governments to provide help to the nation's small and independent restaurants. On March 20 the Cincinnati group called on the federal government to provide a $225 billion bailout to the restaurant industry. According to the National Restaurant Association, 60% of restaurant owners did not think the relief programs would be enough to keep employees on payroll. Restaurants reported $30 billion in losses in March.
Office workers By 2022, even though it was possible to bring employees back full-time, the necessity of working from home during the pandemic proved to many employers that it was feasible, and many office workers preferred to continue working from home several days a week. Most chose to extend weekends and work from home Monday and Friday. This leaves Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday as high-traffic days in downtown office districts, and negatively impacting patronage at businesses that serve office workers, such as lunch restaurants. More businesses began providing free food at offices in order to entice workers to return in person. Some companies reconfigured their office spaces to avoid paying for unused desk space. This included leasing out empty space to other companies, and allocating more space to
hot desks.
Retail lets only a limited number of people into their Union Square store in New York City. A number of retailers, particularly grocery stores, reduced their opening hours to allow additional time to restock and deep-clean their stores. Major stores such as
Walmart,
Apple,
Nike,
Albertsons, and
Trader Joe's also shortened their hours. Some grocery store chains, including
Meijer,
Stop & Shop and
Dollar General, devoted a portion of their operating hours to serve only senior citizens. Many grocery stores and pharmacies began installing plexiglass sneeze guards at register areas to protect cashiers and pharmacists, and adding markers six feet apart at checkout lines to encourage customers to maintain physical distance. To prevent hoarding, many supermarkets and retailers placed limits on certain products such as toilet paper, hand sanitizer, over-the-counter medication, and cleaning supplies. However, the
Food Marketing Institute announced that its supply chain was not strained and all products would be available in the future.
Sheetz convenience stores began offering free meals to children in need at select stores in Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. A daily senior shopping hour, checkout line distancing markers, hand washing and sanitizer for employees, disinfecting wipes for customers to use on carts, and a ban on reusable bags became mandatory in Massachusetts on March 25. Many stores began limiting the number of people inside at a time, to increase the typical distance between customers, resulting in outdoor lines with people spaced six feet apart. Retail sales fell 8.3% in March and 16.4% in April, according to the Commerce Department. The hardest-hit sectors included home furnishings (down by two-thirds over these two months) and clothing (down 89% over these two months).
Milk delivery services experienced demand which significantly exceeded pre-existing capacity. On June 19, 2020, about a month after starting to reopen their outlets in the US,
Apple temporarily closed 11 retail stores across
Arizona,
Florida,
North Carolina, and
South Carolina due to rising numbers of COVID-19 cases. In July 2020, the largest supermarket chain in the country,
Kroger, stopped giving coins as change. Because the U.S. Mint had decreased coin production to protect its employees during the pandemic, and because banks were giving fewer coins to the Federal Reserve, Kroger had difficulty obtaining enough coins for its business. (Instead, Kroger offered to make charitable donations or to issue store credit to the customer.) On June 13, 2021, the
Washington Prime Group, an owner of over 100 U.S. shopping malls, filed for bankruptcy.
Seafood industry The COVID-19 pandemic affected fishing and seafood industries worldwide beginning with the temporary lockdown and closing of all but essential businesses. This affected restaurants, which are where 80% of fish and seafood consumption takes place in the U.S. Disruption to seafood exports resulted in cancelled orders to both national and overseas purchases. Many fisheries became unprofitable and seafood export and import outlets were shuttered, with fishing crews and seafood processing workers being driven into finding other work as market dries up. President Trump also issued an executive order proposing U.S. farm-raised fish and shellfish as the new suitable form of seafood consumption in the United States. The executive order was meant to "encourage public-private partnerships and promote inter-agency, intergovernmental, and international cooperation in order to improve global maritime domain awareness… and economic growth," as well as strengthening national export and decreasing foreign competition. The pandemic impacted seafood supply chains on every level, from fisherfolk and coastal communities to large scale processors, distributors, foodservice buyers, and consumers. Many seafood commodities suffered from unprecedented drops in market value and the communities that capture and produce these commodities were significantly disrupted. A variety of policy approaches balancing public and economic health were implemented in response. On May 7, 2020, the US Secretary of Commerce announced an amendment to Sec. 12005 of the
COVID-19 Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act allocating $300 million in financial assistance to COVID-19 affected coastal and fishery communities. On the same day, President Trump enacted the Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth. The order aims to increase the competitiveness of the American seafood industry via deregulation. Under the order, all eight
Regional Fishery Management Councils must provide policy recommendations to "reduce burdens on domestic fishing" and initiate these recommendations by May 7, 2021.
Shipping and mail With consumers increasingly relying on online retailers,
Amazon planned to hire another 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers and raise wages $2 per hour through April 2020. They also reported shortages of certain household staples. At its warehouses, Amazon stopped exit screenings, as well as group meetings at the beginning of shifts, and staggered shift times and break times. The company also announced it would provide up to two weeks of pay to all employees diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed into quarantine, but presumably not for employees who merely had symptoms of fever and cough. Amazon workers complained paid medical leave was difficult to obtain because of limited access to COVID-19 testing, and some petitioned the company to extend paid leave to elderly and medically vulnerable workers without a positive test. As small numbers of workers tested positive for COVID-19, various Amazon warehouses closed for sanitization, including one in Kentucky for several days. From March 1 to September 19, 2020, nearly 20,000 of Amazon's U.S. employees tested positive or were presumed positive. The
Chicago Tribune reported in March 2020 that employees at
UPS,
FedEx, and
XPO, Inc. were often pressured not to take time off, even with symptoms such as fever and cough consistent with COVID-19. Public health authorities stated the risk was relatively low to customers receiving packages, in part because COVID-19 does not live for very long on cardboard, but infection most certainly was a danger for employees working beside crowded conveyor belts. UPS and FedEx suspended all delivery time guarantees but continued domestic pickups and deliveries. Some international private package deliveries were delayed, while others were completely suspended due to government shutdowns in other countries. Domestic package delivery continued, with two- and three-day package delivery guarantees extended by one day, due to lack of affordable domestic cargo transportation (presumably due to cancellation of most passenger airline flights). A large amount of mail was held due to sustained business shutdowns, with the USPS extending the time period before returning to sender. The USPS stopped accepting international mail for many countries, either due to suspension of service in the destination country or lack of affordable transportation. Some military and diplomatic mail destinations were also shut down. and April 27, 2020. Some postal workers complained of lack of social distancing at work and outages of supplies, including masks, gloves, and rubber bands. In response to the workplace hazards associated with handling and delivering
returned packages, some companies instituted policies meant to minimize risk to both workers and customers. Examples include extending the amount of time allotted to customers to return an item, allowing customers to return an item to a physical location even if they purchased it online, and quarantining returned packages for at least one day upon arrival in the warehouse.
Financial impact on the U.S. Postal Service Ultimately, the pandemic contributed to an increase in e-commerce. By mid-April 2020, with many businesses dropping advertising campaigns or closing completely, the
United States Postal Service (USPS) experienced a 30% drop in volume and projected a $13 billion loss in revenue for 2020. The service was reluctant to accept a $10 billion loan allocated by the
CARES Act because it would increase already high debt levels and give too much control to the
U.S. Treasury, possibly advancing the Trump administration's plan to privatize the postal service. It requested $89 billion in grant aid from Congress.
Travel industry planes parked on a taxiway at
Kansas City International Airport. The planes are parked due to the sharp decrease in demand for air travel.|alt=Many in line airplanes with the Delta Air Lines logo on the tail, parked on pavement behind a fence. . In mid-March, most major American and foreign airlines began cutting back on domestic and international flights as a result of the sudden drop in travel demand from the pandemic and subsequent travel bans, phasing out some routes entirely. Cruise lines suspended all departures from the United States on March 14. The outbreak produced occasional disruptions to
air traffic control with
area control centers in New York and Indianapolis, and airport towers at
Midway International Airport in Chicago and
McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas evacuated for sterilization after at least one person who had been in each tested positive for COVID-19. On March 14,
Amtrak reduced its service between Washington and Boston as the COVID-19 outbreak drastically decreased travel demand. It faced steep revenue losses during the crisis. It also asked noncritical employees "to take time off on an unpaid basis." By the following week, New York's subways, usually the nation's busiest, were running mostly empty, which had the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority using $1 billion from its line of credit to stay afloat. The lobbying group for the airline industry,
Airlines for America (A4A), on March 16 called for a $50 billion subsidy, including $4 billion for cargo services.
CNBC reported that airlines were preparing for a ban on domestic flights after President Trump said on March 14 he was considering travel curbs and acting DHS Secretary
Chad Wolf said all options remained on the table when asked about a possible ban, the first since the
September 11 attacks in 2001. United Airlines said they expected a drop of $1.5 billion in March revenue, American Airlines said they expected to decrease domestic capacity by 20% in April and 30% in May, and Delta Air Lines told employees it would cut capacity by 40%.
Transport and transport safety Covid has had many effects on transport: reduction of traffic, increase of speed, increase of extreme speeding, increase in commercial shipping activity, increase dependence as a commercial vehicle society, increase working hours for truckers, and increase death rates per motor vehicle accident in the United States. The
freight industry experienced a shortage of truck drivers, and freight rates rose higher than 2019 levels. Supply problems and sudden demand for socially-distanced recreation and alternatives to public transport caused a shortage of bicycles.
Commercial real estate The pandemic reduced the value of office properties in New York City by as much as $28 billion.
Pandemic-related fraud The vast increase in the flow of federal funds to American citizens (via the
CARES Act and
related measures) resulted in a corresponding increase in benefits fraud, both from businesses and individuals. In the largest individual case,
Feeding Our Future, dozens of individuals conspired to receive nearly $250 million in
USDA child nutrition funds while failing to actually provide meals to children. Nationwide, as of 2025, more than 4200 Americans had been federally charged with pandemic fraud, leading to more than 2400 convictions and $2 billion in recovered funds and forfeitures. ==Impact on federal budget deficit and debt==