US stocks in for another wild ride on Wall Street as coronavirus rages on
US markets are swinging wildly on Thursday after plunging 30 percent from their peak. The failure by Western countries to contain the Covid-19 outbreak is bringing global business to a halt and causing panic among investors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened down over three percent before recovering earlier losses. The S&P 500 is also in positive territory after losing three percent at the start of trading. The Nasdaq Composite tech index started one and a half percent lower, but is now up.
Despite opening higher earlier in the day, markets in Europe are also slipping. The British FTSE and German DAX are down around one percent during late afternoon trading. The French CAC 40, which was up for most of the day, was also trading less than a half percent lower. The drop came despite the pledge by the European Central Bank to help the region’s economy through the Covid-19 crisis by introducing a €750 billion ($821 billion) bond-buying program.
Also on rt.com Global markets continue free fall as US Fed rolls out THIRD emergency program in 2 days & ECB announces €750bn ‘pandemic QE’Stocks in Asia-Pacific finished with losses, with Australia’s stock market being the worst performer again and falling by nearly four percent. China’s Shanghai Composite was down almost one percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed nearly three percent lower. Japan’s Nikkei was also down more than one percent.
The market jitters followed yet another bloodbath on Wall Street. On Wednesday, the Dow lost more than 1,300 points to close below 20,000 for the first time since February 2017. The S&P 500 fell more than five percent.
The US stock market has been facing wild day-to-day swings amid the coronavirus turmoil, which has forced the US Federal Reserve to announce several rounds of emergency measures to support the economy.
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