Trading on Wall Street was halted immediately after the opening bell Monday, as stocks posted steep losses following emergency moves by the Federal Reserve to try to avert a recession due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Just after the opening bell, the S&P 500 was at 2,490.47, a drop of 8.1 percent and beyond the seven percent loss that automatically triggers a 15-minute trading halt.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 9.7 percent, or around 2,250 points, to 20,935.16, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 6.1 percent to 7,392.73.
On a Sunday, the US central bank announced an emergency interest rate cut of a full percentage point, which brought rates to between 0 percent to 0.25 percent. The Fed will also buy $500 billion of Treasury securities and $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities to bolster the market.
Bit this has not done anything to calm panic in the market – and with rates now close to 0%, investors are worried about where future help will come from.
“Not only has the Federal Reserve thrown all of its tools out of the toolbox to help combat the economic pressures that the coronavirus will bring to the world economy, it has done so by firing all of its guns, grenades as well as bazookas at the problem and it can’t be helped to hold concern following this move regarding what ammunition does the Fed truly have left,” Jameel Ahmad, Global Head of Currency Strategy and Market Research at FXTM, said.
By late afternoon on Monday, the JSE's all share index was down more than 11%.