Wall Street falls as coronavirus shreds US payroll; Dow, S&P slip over 1%

Wall Street's main indexes fell more than 1.5 per cent  on Friday as the coronavirus abruptly ended a record US job growth streak of 113 months, intensifying fears of a deep economic slowdown.

Even the loss of 701,000 jobs that Labor Department data showed for March did not completely capture the economic damage from the virus. The survey considered data only until mid-March, before widespread US lockdowns put more people out of work.

The worldwide spread of the virus has forced billions of people to stay indoors and pushed entire sectors to the brink of collapse, triggering mass layoffs and dramatic steps