All three major U.S. stock averages plunged sharply at the opening bell, triggering trading halts put in place in the wake of 1987’s “Black Monday” crash.
The Dow plummeted a record 2,000 points out of the starting gate on a day that marked the current bull market’s 11th year.
Investors generally consider a drop of 20% from a recent high to signify a bear market, raising the expectations of a drawn out period of negative sentiment.
The CBOE Volatility index , a gauge of investor anxiety, touched its highest level since December 2008.
Oil prices registered their biggest one-day fall since the 1991 Gulf war, with Brent crude futures LCOc1 closing down 23.88% and front-month WTI falling 25.1%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 2,013.76 points, or 7.79%, to 23,851.02, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 225.81 points, or 7.60%, to 2,746.56 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 624.94 points, or 7.29%, to 7,950.68. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 9, 2020.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 17.22 billion shares, compared with the 11.05 billion average over the last 20 trading days. »
