A passerby wearing a protective face mask following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), walks past an electronic display showing Asian markets indices outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, March 9, 2020. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
March 9, 2020
LONDON (Reuters) – A massive oil price collapse overnight and the fast-spreading coronavirus has led to wild price swings across global financial markets on Monday, with some moves as great as 25%.
Those moves came as Saudi Arabia launched a price war with Russia, sending investors already panicked by the coronavirus fleeing for safety.
When was the last time oil giants such as BP <BP.L> and Shell <RDSa.L> shed one-fourth of their value? Never.
The list below highlights some of the biggest price moves and their significance:
** Brent crude <LCOc1> fell as much as 31.4%, the biggest daily drop since the first Gulf War
** The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries <US10YT=RR> fell further to a record low of 0.4624%, having halved in just three sessions
** With swings in yield, markets are now fully pricing in a rate cut of 75 basis points by the Federal Reserve on March 18
** The 10-year Bund yield fell to a record low of -0.863% <DE10YT=RR>
** U.S. stock futures plunged 5% to hit their daily down limit and halt trading
** London’s FTSE 100 <.FTSE> shed 8.4% a few minutes after the open in its worst single-day drop since the financial crisis
** London-listed Shell plunged 23% and BP 29% in their worst-ever intraday rout
** The Russian rouble is down over 8%, on track for its worst drop since December 2014, also when oil prices plunged
** The dollar extended its slide in Asia to as low as 102.60 yen <JPY=>, depths not seen since late 2016
** Emerging-market stocks <.MSCIEF> dropped over 4% and the world’s biggest listed entity, Saudi Aramco <2222.SE>, traded below its IPO price for the first time
(Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan and additional reporting by Marc Jones in London; editing by Larry King)
