This is huge

THU, MAR 26, 2020

YOUR AFTERNOON NEWS UPDATE AND MARKET ACTION FROM CNBC

AS OF THU, MAR 26, 2020 • 11:48 ET

DJIA		22308.82
		+5.23%	+1108.27

S&P 500		2585.95
		+4.46%	+110.39

NASDAQ		7655.98
		+3.68%	+271.69

EDITOR'S NOTE

I'm not talking about jobless claims, although that was also huge (3.2 million filed last week). We'll probably get 10 to 14 million total new claims filed in the next few weeks, according to economists, if not more. After all, freelancers and gig workers will, for the first time, be able to access jobless benefits as soon as the relief bill passes into law. So these numbers are going to be terribly large for awhile.

The much better "huge" that I'm talking about is the news from Henry Schein this morning. The company is a supplier of dental and medical equipment and software, including everything from the little metal hooks (sorry, "scalers" and "curettes") that your dentist uses to saliva and skin tests.

And that's where this morning's news comes in: the company says it has developed a test that would identify if you have the COVID-19 antibodies in your system. Moreover, Henry Schein says the test would deliver results within fifteen minutes (!) from a pinprick, with no bigger instrumentation needed. And it thinks it will have "at least several hundred thousand" tests available by the end of the month--that's in four days!

If this all proves to be true, it's a game changer. For one, it's a way for people to show they've had COVID, recovered, and can go back to work. That would include tons of people--myself included--who wonder if they've had it without realizing at the time. Moreover, the blood of people who have had COVID and now have the antibodies in their system can potentially be used as an antidote for the disease.

We all know to be wary of news that seems too good to be true. But I'm absolutely rooting for this development to be as good as it sounds. Not for nothing, the Dow's up about 1100 points today after initially being down 400 or so, and as Sara Eisen pointed out this morning, this news may in fact be one reason why.

See you at 1 p.m!

Kelly

Kelly Evans
Twitter: @KellyCNBC

Instagram: @realkellyevans

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