The Dow just lost all of its gains since President Trump took office

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The Dow has lost all the gains it amassed since President Trump took office more than three years ago, sinking on Wednesday as fears about the coronavirus kneecapping the economy tightened their grip on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average got halted shortly after 1 p.m. by a marketwide “circuit breaker” as it plunged 1,660.63 points, or 7.8 percent, to 19,808.90 — dipping below the blue-chip index’s close of 19,827.25 the day Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017.

The Dow resumed its heart-stopping slide after the 15-minute halt, recently off 2,124.34 points, or 10 percent, at 19,113.04.

A nasty tumble in the S&P 500 had triggered the circuit breaker on Wednesday for the fourth time in less than two weeks. The benchmark index was recently off 8.1 percent at 2,324.80 as prices for save-haven assets like gold and government bonds likewise took a hit on Wednesday — signals that investors are scrambling to raise cash amid a liquidity crunch. The Nasdaq was recently off 7.4 percent at 6,794.36.

All three indexes have now slid 30 percent from their February highs.

Stocks had surged Tuesday as the Trump administration pushed for a coronavirus spending package that could grow to more than $1 trillion. But those hopes appeared to fade Wednesday as the number of cases worldwide surpassed 200,000 and millions of people remained shut in their homes.

“The greatest market ever is gone,” said Donald Selkin, chief market strategist at Newbridge Securities. “This shows that maybe there’s a lack of confidence in what the administration has done. They need much more.”

The rout in stocks came as oil prices plummeted to their lowest levels in more than 18 years. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures sank to a low of $22.04 a barrel and were off more than 17 percent at $22.29 as of 12:40 p.m.

A price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia has exacerbated strife in global oil markets already battered by the coronavirus crisis, which has led demand for travel to tank.

“Oil prices seem to be fighting a three-headed monster that is a global recession, oversupply deluge, and demand destruction,” Ed Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, wrote in a Tuesday commentary. “It doesn’t seem like anyone is getting on a plane anytime soon and with social lockdowns likely to remain in place for at least a month, oil seems like it has only one direction to go.”

Falling bond prices, signalling frantic selling by large firms short on cash, also unsettled investors Wednesday, analysts said. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to price, jumped to a high of about 1.23 percent Wednesday after falling below 0.7 percent earlier in the week.

The prospect of a massive stimulus package ballooning the federal deficit is likely driving up bond yields, working against the Fed’s efforts to push them down, according Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank.

“The reason investors got cold feet on yesterday’s rally was that the stimulus package was so big that it was gonna be a budget buster for the federal government,” Rupkey said.

The coronavirus crisis has raised fears about the global economy entering a recession, given that measures taken to slow its spread have dampened consumer spending, forced some businesses to close and greatly reduced travel around the world.

The panic reached a fever pitch on Wall Street early this week, leading the Dow to shed nearly 3,000 points on Monday and drop below 20,000 for the first time in three years Tuesday morning.

The White House this week proposed aggressive measures to shore up the US economy, including cash payments to struggling Americans, deferrals for tax payments and direct aid to pandemic-battered industries such as airlines. Those would complement the Federal Reserve’s moves to slash interest rates to near zero and restart its bond-buying program known as quantitative easing.

But it’s unclear how quickly Congress will pass a stimulus package and unlikely that the virus will abate as lawmakers negotiate over what steps to take.

“There’s certainly a lot of forced selling and systematic selling which is certainly having an effect across asset classes,” said Sahak Manuelian, managing director and head of equity trading at Wedbush Securities. “Everything’s under pressure. There’s a lot of uncertainty.”