U.S. stock indexes dropped Friday after President Trump revealed that he tested positive for coronavirus.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.4% at market open, and the tech-centric Nasdaq Composite Index slid 2.15%. The S&P 500 was off 1.5%.

Markets globally were rattled by Trump’s positive test for COVID-19, because it introduces considerable uncertainty about the political leadership of the U.S., the world’s biggest economic power by GDP. At 74, Trump statistically is at a higher risk for health complications from COVID-19.

Stocks also took a hit as investors grappled with a new U.S. jobs report released Friday morning that the economy added 661,000 jobs in September 2020 — a slowdown from the U.S.’s recovery in the past few months. The U.S. unemployment rate stood at 7.9% as of last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said, the highest it’s ever been before a presidential election. Since February, U.S. employers have reported a net loss of 10.7 million jobs.

Meanwhile, the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill Thursday but Democrats encountered continued opposition from GOP leaders.

In Trump’s late-night tweet announcing that he and First Lady Melania Trump had the coronavirus, the president said the couple will remain quarantined in the White House for an unspecified length of time. That will certainly disrupt Trump’s upcoming campaign events in the final month before Election Day.

Earlier Thursday evening, Trump told the crowd at a fundraiser at his Bedminster, N.J., golf club that “the end of the pandemic is in sight.”

Also Thursday, Cornell University researchers released a study finding that media mentions citing Trump in the context of COVID-19 misinformation comprised 37.9% of the overall “misinformation conversation.” The study concludes that Trump — who has downplayed the threat of the coronavirus, promoted unproven and potentially dangerous medical treatments, and repeatedly ridiculed wearing of protective masks — has represented the single biggest source of falsehoods spread about the pandemic.

Pictured above: President Trump departing the White House on Oct. 1 for his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.

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