Wall Street trade halted for 15 minutes as S&P hits down limit

Bengaluru — Wall Street’s main indexes dropped 7% and the Dow Jones Industrials crashed 2,000 points in what would be its biggest one-day fall ever, as trading resumed on Monday following a 22% slump in oil prices.

Trading on US stock exchanges was halted immediately after opening on Monday, as the S&P 500 fell 7%, triggering an automatic 15 minute cut-out put in place after the 2008/2009 financial crisis.

Saudi Arabia’s move to raise oil production significantly after Opec’s supply cut agreement with Russia collapsed sent ripples across global financial markets already panicking about the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

Crude oil logged its worst day in almost three decades, sending oil majors Chevron and ExxonMobil down more than 9%. The energy index slumped 20.1%.

At 9.54am ET (1.54pm GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1,791.85 points, or 6.93%, at 24,072.93 and the S&P 500 was down 195.93 points, or 6.59%, at 2,776.44. The Nasdaq Composite was down 530.62 points, or 6.19%, at 8,045.00.

Earlier in the day, European markets suffered hefty losses in early trade with London dropping more than 8%, Frankfurt falling more than 7% and Paris almost matching those losses.

Reuters