Trading On Wall Street Halted As Markets Drop Thousands Of Points Over Coronavirus, Oil Concerns

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Wall Street stock markets dropped so precipitously on Monday’s opening bell that a 15-minute delay in all trading conducted was triggered.

Such a trigger happens on trading when the S&P 500 dips below 7 percent from its previous close, Bloomberg reported. If the rate drops down to 20 percent below its previous close, Wall Street itself will close for the day.

It’s the first time since 2008, during The Great Recession, that the trigger mechanism was utilized. On Monday, the halt on trading came about just mere minutes after the opening bell rang.

In addition to S&P’s big losses, the Dow Jones also dropped by 1,800 points, more than 7 percent, while NASDAQ went down by 6 percent in the early morning hours of trading, ABC News reported.

The sudden declines in the market came about for two major reasons: first, the continued worries over coronavirus and its global spread have created; and second, a deal between OPEC nations that fell apart, prompting a trade war between oil-rich nations.

The huge dropoffs, in some experts’ minds, demonstrate how fragile the market has been for quite some time now. Yet just two weeks ago, President Donald Trump implied there was nothing to worry about, even regarding coronavirus’ effects on the marketplace, on the same day that there was a drop in market numbers.

“The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA…Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” Trump said on February 24 of this year.

If the stock markets continue to plunge for a long period of time, it could spell disaster for Trump’s re-election chances, as he’s frequently cited the economy as his top selling-point for being given a second term in office.

David Rothschild, an economics journalist, noted that the stock market going into a “free fall” would be a bad look for an administration plagued with so many other non-economic issues already.

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Chris Walker

Chris Walker is a freelance journalist based in Madison, Wisconsin, who focuses on news, politics, and analysis of world events. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, since 2005 Chris has reported on workers' rights protests in Wisconsin, opined on four separate presidential elections and written on a number of other political subjects for a variety of national online publications.