Dow closes out the worst first quarter in history: March 31, 2020

A key part of China's economy -- its manufacturing sector -- roared back to life in March following a slump earlier this year due to the Covid-19 outbreak. But investors seem to be betting that Chinese consumers are recovering as well.

The US-listed shares of Chinese coffee chain Luckin (LK) -- a homegrown rival to Starbucks (SBUX) -- soared 7% Tuesday on no company specific news.

Several other big Chinese companies with ties to the consumer were also rallying on Wall Street -- even as the broader US market fell a bit.

E-commerce king Alibaba (BABA) was up 2%. Search engine Baidu (BIDU), which is often referred to as China's Google, rallied more than 4%.

And Tencent Music Group (TME), the streaming platform backed by the Chinese conglomerate Tencent and music service Spotify (SPOT), rose nearly 6%.

Luckin, Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent Music are still in the red for the year but all four of them are well off their 52-week lows. So if this recent rebound is any indication of what's to come for blue chip American consumer and tech stocks, there is at least some hope on the horizon for investors.

JCPenney (JCP) is the latest major retailer to furlough thousands of employees, joining Macy's, Kohl's and the Gap.

The department store said that it has made the "difficult decision to temporarily furlough the majority of store hourly associates." JCPenney also said that a "significant portion" of its corporate employees will also be placed on leave. The company had about 90,000 employees as of February 1.

Affected employees will continue to receive the company-provided healthcare.

The company also said its stores remained closed. However, its website is still operational for orders.

Companies like Walmart (WMT) and Domino's (DPZ) are hiring workers to meet increasing demand for such retail and food delivery jobs amid the coronavirus outbreak. This is helping some Americans who may have just lost their jobs as more and more employers shut down to limit their losses as the COVID-19 virus continues to spread.

On the whole, however, US companies are hiring at far lower numbers.

Job openings across the country are down 8.8% week-over-week from March 16, according to data from career website Glassdoor.

In particular, openings in consumer services, good services and manufacturing jobs have dropped as companies close in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Workers are being squeezed by a one-two punch of less hiring and more layoffs.

Health care and hospital jobs are, meanwhile, up.

Compared to last year, job opening are still higher "due to a strong economic buffer in early 2020," the Glassdoor data shows.

US stocks remain in modestly positive territory around midday.

The three indexes started the day slightly lower, but turned green throughout the morning.

It's the last trading day of the month and the first quarter and stocks are up mid-morning.

After opening modestly lower, the major US indexes have recovered and are back in the green. The Dow is up 0.5%, or about 100 points, while the broader S&P 500 is up 0.3%. The Nasdaq Composite is up 1.2%.

But after weeks of deep selloffs the Dow looks all but certain to close as the index's worst first quarter ever, its weakest overall quarterly performance since 1987 and the ninth worst quarter in history.

In short: the past three months have been horrendous for investors.

And it's not just the Dow. The S&P -- Wall Street's broadest measure -- is shaping up to have its worst quarter since the final three months of 2008.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which is the youngest of the three benchmarks, is on track for its worst quarter since the fourth quarter of 2018.

The oil crash has left crude sitting at 18-year lows.

US oil prices have collapsed by more than two-thirds since early January, sinking to just $20 a barrel on Monday.

The magnitude of the crash is even more startling when inflation is taken into account.

On an inflation-adjusted basis, oil has been more expensive than today 98% of the time over the last 75 years, according to a report by Andres Garcia-Amaya, CEO of Zoe Financial.

The stunning selloff is being driven by the combination of shrinking demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic and intentionally-high supply from Saudi Arabia and Russia.

"This is truly the perfect storm," Garcia said.

Papa John's (PZZA) shared some good financial news Tuesday.

In the three months ending on March 29, sales at North American locations open at least a year jumped 5.3%, according to the company's preliminary figures.

The results sent shares of the company up nearly 7% during trading hours on Tuesday, as other companies fell because their businesses are taking a hit from the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement discussing the results, president and CEO Rob Lynch said that Papa John's is "nearly fully operational," in most markets, including North America.

"We have implemented extra health and safety measures across our business, including no contact delivery, for the protection of both our customers and team members," Lynch said.

The company may be seeing success because of recent efforts to increase efficiency in stores. During a February call discussing fourth-quarter results, Lynch said that the company is rolling out a centralized system to take phone orders across its company-owned stores. It is also working with third-party delivery providers like DoorDash and Postmates.

Still, some parts of the business are hurting. Lynch said that in March, North American sales were negatively impacted by the cancellation of sporting events and other large gatherings.

Consumer confidence in March was a mix of good news and bad news.

The Conference Board's consumer confidence index for March came in at 120 points and beat economists expectations of 110 points. That's the good news.

The bad news: It was the lowest level for the index since July 2017. The index had been at 132.6 in February.

The short-term outlook for income, business and labor market conditions dropped to 88.2 points from 108.1 points in February.

"The intensification of COVID-19 and extreme volatility in the financial markets have increased uncertainty about the outlook for the economy and jobs. March’s decline in confidence is more in line with a severe contraction – rather than a temporary shock – and further declines are sure to follow,” said Lynn Franco, senior director of economic indicators at The Conference Board.

KFC is sending one million pieces of chicken to its over 4,000 US restaurants to help communities affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The extra food is earmarked for donation, the fast-food chain said Tuesday, and each restaurant will determine how to distribute it.

Each location is encouraged to do "whatever their hometown needs most," whether that be donating the chicken to hunger organizations, feeding essential personnel or something else, KFC said in a press release.

Many fast food chains have been donating meals as the pandemic spreads. Taco Bell, for example, is giving out free tacos through its drive-thru on Tuesday.