By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.S. stock markets were suspended, limit down, almost immediately after trading started on Monday, as the shutdown of increasing swathes of public life in the U.S. brought home the scale of the coronavirus outbreak.
By 9:35 AM ET (1335 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2,250 points or 9.7% at 20,93 points. The S&P 500 was indicated down 7.5% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 6.1%. Trading is set to resume at 9.51 AM ET.
Investors weren’t reassured by the emergency measures taken on Sunday night by the Federal Reserve, which cut the target range for fed funds to near zero and signalled $700 billion in asset purchases to keep financial markets orderly.
The Fed also said it would extend the availability of dollars internationally through swap facilities with other central banks.
Earlier on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged investors to look beyond the short-term hit to the eocnomy, telling CNBC that "There will be a huge amount of pent up demand when this is done. And it will be done.”
However, Mnuchin also warned that "the goal is not to bail out companies,” a line that appeared to raise the risk of near-term bankruptcies, especially in the transport and oil sectors.
Among the worst hit were airline stocks. United Airlines stock fell over 15% after saying it would slash capacity by 50%, while Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) stock and American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) stock also fell heavily after the Trump administration expanded restrictions on arrivals from Europe to include the key routes serving London and Dublin.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock fell some 13% after the company said it will shut all its stores outside China. It was also hit by a $1.2 billion antitrust fine in France.
Oil and gas stocks tumbled again as crude prices fell below $30 a barrel and U.S. gasoline prices fell to an all-time low of 69 cents a gallon.