US open: Stocks tumble as trading briefly halted for second time this week
US stocks opened sharply lower on Thursday, with trading being briefly halted both ahead of and after the bell as fears around the potential economic fallout related to COVID-19 continued to weigh on investor sentiment.
As of 1535 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 8.29% at 21,599.97, while the S&P 500 was 7.41% weaker at 2,538.21 and the Nasdaq Composite crashed out the gate 7.12% softer at 7,385.75.
The Dow opened 1,953.25 points lower on Thursday, following on from Wednesday's session which saw the major indices erase all of their gains from the previous session. Coronavirus fears continued to roil shares and left the Dow in a bear market at the close on Thursday - down more than 20% below its record close set only a month earlier and putting to end to a historic 11-year bull market run.
Stocks hit "limit down" at the opening bell following a 5% decline, triggering a halt on all three major US indices for a second time this week - a rule put in place to reduce panic after the previous system failed to prevent the May 2010 'flash' crash.
The losses came after Donald Trump fell short of silencing concerns regarding a possible economic slowdown stemming from the coronavirus during his televised appearance the night before.
The President also revealed that travel from Europe to the USA would be suspended for 30 days as part of the White House's response to the pandemic. He also vowed to provide financial support to workers who were ill, caring for others due to the virus or in quarantine.
However, market participants were hoping for a more detailed and robust fiscal response to curb potentially slowing economic growth, sending markets into yet another downward spiral. Trump later said markets would be "just fine".
SpreadEx analyst Connor Campbell said: "A horrorshow US open turned an already very bad day into the kind of session that could go down as historic, if for all the wrong reasons.
"It is hard to keep coming up with new metaphors for the scale of disaster facing the global markets. Equities are getting crushed underfoot as investors flee to the fire exit, desperately scrambling about for safe havens that feel anything but."
Also in focus was news that the National Basketball Association had chosen to suspend its season indefinitely after Utah Jazz centre Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus.
On the macro front, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell last week, according to figures released by the Labor Department on Thursday.
Jobless claims were down 4,000 to 211,000 from the previous week’s level, which was revised lower by 1,000. Economists had expected a level of 218,000.
Meanwhile, the four-week moving average came in at 214,000 up 1,250 from the previous week’s level, which was revised down by 250.
No major corporate earnings were scheduled for release on Thursday.