US STOCKS-Futures fall after three-day surge as virus fears grow

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* Futures down: Dow 2.51%, S&P 2.43%, Nasdaq 2.18%

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By Uday Sampath Kumar and Medha Singh
March 27 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures fell over 2%
on Friday, a day after the S&P 500 and the Dow posted their best
three-day run since the early 1930s, as the United States faced
the prospect of becoming the next global epicenter of the
coronavirus pandemic.
Despite a jittery start to the week, all three major indexes
have so far jumped between 13.3% and 17.6%, powered by
unprecedented policy easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve and
hopes of a $2.2 trillion government stimulus aid bill.
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to debate on
the proposal, aimed at flooding the country with cash in a bid
to counter the economic impact of the outbreak, later on Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI is now up more than
20% from its intra-day low this week, technically establishing a
bull market.
But with both the Dow and the S&P 500 .SPX still down over
20% from their mid-February record highs, traders said the
rebound was unlikely to last without evidence that the virus was
being contained. "Gains in equities this week do not truly reflect market
confidence that the coronavirus outbreak has peaked and that the
economic turmoil is over," said Han Tan, market analyst at FXTM
in Kuala Lumpur.
The United States on Thursday surpassed China as the country
with the most coronavirus cases, with nearly 85,000 infections
and 1,259 deaths, and is expected to become the epicenter of the
pandemic, according to the World Health Organization.
A record 3 million surge in U.S. weekly jobless claims
offered the first glimpse of the extent of the economic damage
from the outbreak, which has forced several companies to shutter
stores and announce layoffs. "Big questions are starting to be answered, like how bad is
the spread of infections (and) how bad is the economic damage,"
said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst for Markets.com in
London.
"That is a recovery narrative, not panic, but if recovery is
not as swift as hoped, equity markets will suffer another hit."
Oil majors Exxon Mobil XOM.N and Chevron Corp CVX.N fell
3% premarket, tracking a drop Brent crude LCOc1 prices.
Boeing Co BA.N slipped 4% and was the top percentage
decliner among Dow components, but was still set for it best
weekly gains with a whopping 90% increase.
At 07:01 a.m. EDT, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 560
points, or 2.51%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 63.25
points, or 2.43% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 171
points, or 2.18%.