#Dow plunges more than 400 points after Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis

President Trump spooked Wall Street Friday with his stunning revelation that he’d caught the coronavirus — but reports that it was just a mild case soothed investors’ sniffles.

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged as much as 433.96 points, or 1.5 percent, to 27,382.94 in early trading after Trump overnight announcement that he’d tested positive for the potentially deadly COVID-19 bug.

The benchmark S&P 500 likewise dropped as much as 1.7 percent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged as much as 2.5 percent on the news, which the president personally delivered on Twitter.

But the indices recovered after the White House said Trump was feeling “energetic” and had only mild symptoms, easing some uncertainty about whether the virus would affect his ability to govern.

“That changed the direction of the fear trade that it could perhaps be more significant, and then that would lead to more complications in the election process, in leadership — all of the questions regarding the president’s ability to lead,” Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial, told The Post.

The Dow was roughly flat as of 1:39 p.m. after briefly turning positive, while the S&P was recently off 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq was down 1.8 percent.

Trump’s shocking diagnosis nevertheless injected a fresh dose of uncertainty into a market already wary of a stalling economic recovery from the pandemic.

The CBOE Volatility Index — known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge” — climbed to its highest level in a week and was recently up about 4.3 percent at 27.86, indicating investors were bracing for a rocky road ahead.

“Volatility was expected this fall as the presidential election cycle kicked into full gear and we faced our first test of the possibility of a resurgence of flu cases, but markets weren’t likely pricing in the president getting infected,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Independent Advisor Alliance.

Trump’s positive test also raised questions about the prospects for another large-scale stimulus package to shore up the pandemic-battered economy, which had helped lift stocks earlier in the week.

The feds’ monthly jobs report underscored the urgency of the need for more spending. The economy added just 661,000 jobs in September, well below expectations for a gain of 850,000.

While stimulus talks are still at a logjam, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lifted investors’ hopes Friday when she said more aid was on the way for struggling airlines, either as a standalone bill or as part of a broader package. That could help stave off tens of thousands of job cuts like those announced this week by major US carriers United and American.

Even if a deal is reached, Trump’s diagnosis likely stoked more fears among investors about another spike in COVID-19 cases that could further threaten the economy, according to Anthony Denier, CEO of trading platform Webull.

“It almost kind of confirms our fear that the second wave is coming,” Denier told The Post. “It’s not just a Dr. Fauci scandal as someone on 4Chan would talk about.”