Global stock markets continue to fall

S&P 500 collapsed by 12% of its maximum recorded on February 19

On Thursday, US stock quotes resumed falling. The Dow index fell again by more than 1000 pips per day, for the 4th time in its entire history. The main reason for such a negative trend is still the spread of the coronavirus epidemic named Covid-19. The daily decline in US indices was the highest since August 2011: S&P 500 (-4,42%), Dow Jones Industrial Average (-4,46%), Nasdaq (-4,6%). The S&P 500 is moving down led by three sectors: real estate, high technology and energy. Shares of Microsoft Corp plummeted by 7% after reporting a potential profit cut due to coronavirus. Earlier, similar negative statements were made by Apple, HP, PayPal, Mastercard and others. The S&P 500 growth leader was the medical masks manufacturer 3M (+ 0.8%). On Thursday, the volume of trading on US exchanges was record high since July 2014 and amounted to 15.6 billion stocks. This is almost twice more than the average level of 20 days. USA are to publish important economic data today: trade balance and personal expenses for January. The ICE dollar index continues to decline today. Futures for US stock indexes fall by around 2.5%.

European stock indices are actively going down today

European stocks fell significantly yesterday. Today, they still keep declining. Italy took the third place in the number of people infected with coronavirus (about 700 people) after South Korea (2.5 thousand) and China (79 thousand). The death toll in Italy has come up to 20 people. Yesterday, European companies' quotations from the travel & leisure sector fell more than others. Today, the German DAX index crashed by almost 5%. If this decline continues, it could be the worst week for European stock exchanges since the 2008 crisis. The World Health Organization stated the coronavirus epidemic could overgrow into a global pandemic. Moody's rating agency said the pandemic will switch the US and global economies into recession in the first half of this year. Today, the Eurozone will publish data on inflation and the labor market in Germany. The EUR/USD rate today continues to rise steadily. Investors expect the Fed to fall by 0.25% at the April 29 meeting and lower the ECB rate by just 0.1% at the July 16 meeting.

Nikkei collapsed today along with other world indices

Today, all Asian indices went down. In general, there is no growth on any more or less large stock market in the world. Hang Seng index lost 2.4%. Meanwhile, the situation with coronavirus in China already shows signs of stabilization, unlike other countries. Mainland China on Friday reported about only 327 new cases of the disease. This is the minimum since January 23. The total number of cases in the country approached 79 thousand people, nearly 2.8 thousand died. During the week, Hang Seng decreased by 4.3%. This is noticeably less than the fall of many American and European indices. Investors expect the Chinese authorities to take measures to support the economy. Japanese Nikkei index for the week fell by 10% to a minimum since September last year. This could be facilitated by the powerful strengthening of the yen, which investors consider as a protective asset. The number of patients with coronavirus in Japan is a little more than 200 people

Brent crushed below psychological level of $ 50 a barrel today

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures demonstrated an extreme weekly decline of 14% since May 2011. Market participants are waiting for the results of the OPEC + session, which is to be held March 5-6. Previously, OPEC + was going to reduce oil production by 600 thousand barrels per day, which could support oil prices. We can note a reduction in prices for almost all commodities, including copper and other non-ferrous metals, agricultural products, natural gas and so on.

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