US stock markets end on mixed note

Stock market gives up intraday gains as Apple plans to re-close stores and on signs of rising coronavirus cases.

U.S. stock indexes gave up strong early gains to close mostly lower Friday, after the World Health Organization signaled that the coronavirus pandemic remains a deadly threat, and Apple said it will re-close some stores due to rising case counts in parts of America, casting doubt on the speed of economic recovery.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 208.64 points lower, down 0.8%, at 25,871.46, after being as much as 371 points higher at an intraday peak at 26,451.44. The S&P 500 index fell 17.60 points, or 0.6%, to close at 3,097.74, but hit an intraday peak at 3,155.53. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 3.07 points, less than 0.1%, to close at 9,946.12.

Apple said it's reclosing a total of 11 stores in Florida, Arizona, South Carolina and North Carolina. All of the stores had been re-opened since Apple initially closed them in March amid the outbreak.

Shares of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings , Carnival Corp., and Royal Caribbean Cruises tumbled after the Cruise Lines International Association announced a voluntary suspension of operations from U.S. ports until Sept. 15 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The current no-sail order had been set to expire on July 24.

The World Health Organization at a Friday briefing also said that the coronavirus pandemic has entered a new and dangerous phase. Arizona and Florida reported record spikes in confirmed Covid-19 cases on Friday as states continue their phased reopenings and ramping up testing.

Some 8.5 million people have been infected with COVID-19 world-wide and the illness has killed at least 456,000, as per Johns Hopkins University.

On Friday, Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren cautioned that the U.S. economy isn't likely to have a fast recovery and more support will likely be needed from the Federal Reserve and Congress, reiterating comments made by Chairman Jerome Powell earlier this week.

Stocks earlier got a boost Friday from a report indicating that China plans to accelerate purchases of American farm goods to comply with the phase one trade deal signed in January.

In economic reports, the U.S. current-account deficit, a measure of the nation's debt to other countries, slipped 0.1% in the first quarter. The current-account deficit fell to $104.2 billion from a revised $104.3 billion in the 2019 fourth quarter.

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