U.S. stock market has noticed a plunge following the drastic new measures taken by the Federal Reserve on Sunday in a move to stabilize the economy and financial markets amid the coronavirus pandemic.
According to The Hill, the Dow Jones Industrial Average sunk 2,250 points falling 9.7 percent as trading opened Monday morning. The S&P 500 fell 8.14 percent, triggering an automatic 15-minute pause in trading that occurs whenever the index falls at least 7 percent after the opening bell, and the Nasdaq composite sunk 6.1 percent.
Wall Street was expected open Monday to steep losses after the Fed slashed interest rates to 0 percent and announced it would buy at least $700 billion in bonds following an emergency Sunday meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the central bank’s monetary policy arm.
Stock futures plummeted after the Fed’s announcement Sunday, pushing S&P past its “limit down,” or the level of losses at which futures trading for the index is halted until the stock market reopens.
Monday’s sell-off and the major Fed intervention that spurred them are the latest flash of deep anxiety within financial markets as the coronavirus pandemic threatens to plunge the global economy into recession.
Public health officials have urged Americans to severely limit their time in public spaces and avoid crowds to help slow the spread of the coronavirus at the necessary cost of significant economic activity in the U.S.
Governors and mayors across the U.S. have ordered bars closed and restricted restaurants to only carry-out or delivery as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases rises sharply. There are at least 3,602 confirmed cases and 66 deaths in the U.S. as of Monday morning, according to the New York Times.
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