US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — The New York Stock Exchange ended 6.3% lower on Wednesday, with investors now expecting economic activity to come to a complete halt and consumer spending to fall.
The Dow Jones index lost 1,338.46 points to 19,898.92 falling below the 20,000 mark and undoing the gains recorded since the coming to power of Donald Trump.
The broader S & P-500 lost 131.01 points, or -5.18%, to 2,398.18,398.32.
The Nasdaq Composite fell by 344.94 points (-4.70%) to 6,989.84 points.
“We are going to have a considerable disruption and a dislocation of our economy“, fears Keith Bliss, at iQ Capital in New York.
“We are amalgamating with what is happening on the coronavirus and what has happened with the global financial crisis.”
Among the hardest hit stocks, Boeing (NYSE: BA ) fell almost 18% and United Technologies (NYSE: UTX ) fell more than 14% while oil tanker Chevron (NYSE: CVX ) lost nearly 22%.
The day was also heckled on the bond markets with a rapid rise in yields on government bonds in the eurozone, Germany included, a movement fueled by the prospect of a widening of deficits and an increase in public debts.
The ten-year Bund yield, the benchmark for the region, took up to 20 points, its largest increase in one session since the financial crisis.
Ten-year Treasuries saw their yield increase by 18 basis points to 1.1767% at the end of the session after a jagged session which saw the yield oscillate between more than 1.2% and less than 1%.
The fall in oil prices has accelerated after the publication of a study by Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS ) according to which containment measures around the world could reduce world demand by eight to nine million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of March and 1.1 million bpd over the whole year, which would be unprecedented.
The Brent ended down 13.4% to 24.88 dollars a barrel and US crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) lost 24.42% to 20.37 dollars after hitting a low of 18.
In the past ten days, the American barrel has lost 56% of its value.
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The article is written and prepared by our foreign editors from different countries around the world – material edited and published by Ordo News staff in our US newsroom press.