Dow marks worst day since 2008 on coronavirus economic damage fears

Stocks took their worst one-day beating on Wall Street since the global financial crisis of 2008 as a collapse in oil prices Monday combined with mounting alarm over what the coronavirus could do to the world economy.

The staggering losses, including a 7.8 percent tumble in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, immediately raised fears that a recession might be on the way in the U.S. and that the record-breaking 11-year bull market on Wall Street may be coming to an abrupt end in a way no one even imagined just a few months ago.

The drop was so sharp that it triggered the first automatic halt in trading in more than two decades. European stock indexes likewise registered their heaviest losses since the darkest days of the 2008 meltdown and are now in a bear market.

Together, the sell-offs reflected growing anxiety over the potential global economic damage from the coronavirus, which has infected more than 110,000 people worldwide and killed about 4,000 while prompting factory shutdowns, travel bans, closings of schools and stores, and cancellations of conventions and celebrations big and small.

“The market has had a crisis of confidence,” said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at Baird.

On Wall Street, the drop in the S&P 500 triggered an automatic 15-minute market-wide trading halt by falling 7.4 percent in the first few minutes after the opening bell. The so-called circuit breaker has been triggered only once before, in 1997.

The S&P closed with a loss of 7.6 [percent, its biggest one-day drop since December 1, 2008. The Dow was down 2,013 points, or 7.8 percent, at 23,851. The Nasdaq gave up 7.3 percent.-AP