Trump's diagnosis fuels uncertainty for skittish US stock market

Investors are gauging how a potential deterioration in President Donald Trump’s health could impact asset prices in coming weeks, as the US leader remains hospitalised after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

US President Donald Trump disembarks from the Marine One helicopter followed by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows as he arrives at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after the White House announced that he "will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days" after testing positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Bethesda, Maryland, US, October 2, 2020. [Reuters]

So far, markets have been comparatively sanguine: hopes of a breakthrough in talks among US lawmakers on another stimulus package took the edge off a stock market selloff on Friday, with the S&P 500 losing less than 1 per cent and so-called safe-haven assets seeing limited demand. News of Trump’s hospitalisation at a military medical center outside Washington, where he remained on Saturday, came after trading ended on Friday.