Black Thursday in the markets: Wall Street, the stock markets of Europe and oil suffer heavy losses

European stock markets, that had opened with sharp falls after the US decision to restrict travel from Europe, have declined their declines, with drops that are around 10%, after announcing the European Central Bank (ECB) its measures to face the impact of the coronavirus on the economy. The New York stock exchange also registered heavy losses, after the suspension of operations after the 7% drop in the S&P 500 index at the open.

At 14:45 GMT, the Ibex 35, the selective of the Spanish Stock Market, fell 10%, up to 6,670 points, the lowest level since September 2012.

In the rest of Europe, London down 8.7%; Frankfurt, 9.8%; Paris, 10%; and Milan, almost 9%.

The ECB has decided to maintain interest rates in the euro area and has chosen to buy more debt and guarantee liquidity for companies.

On Wall Street, the collapse of the S&P 500, which includes the 500 most important companies, activated a mechanism that interrupts exchanges for a quarter of an hour in an attempt to stop the bleeding. The same thing had already happened on Monday after a fall of more than 7% of the S&P 500.

At the time of resuming operations, the industrial index Dow Jones sank 7.82%, the Nasdaq, with a strong technological component, yielded 5.95% and the S&P 500 was -6.89%.

Oil continues decline

Oil prices fell sharply again as travel restrictions were extended around the world and due to the lack of agreement between producing countries to cut the volume of crude oil in the market.

As he Brent, of reference in Europe, as the Texas, a reference in the USA they are now down almost 9%.

And is that the suspension for a month of flights from Europe to the United States means a drastic drop in the consumption of black gold.

São Paulo Stock Exchange falls more than 15% and suspends operations again

In Brazil, the São Paulo stock exchange had to interrupt its activities twice, after falling 11.65% in the first 20 minutes of negotiations and another 15% soon after.

At the time of the suspension, at 11h12 local time (14h12 GMT), the Ibovespa index lost 15.43%, at 72,016 points, its lowest level since June 2018. Operations should resume at 12h12 local.

The preferred shares of Petrobras more than 20% fell. Airlines Goal Y blue they yielded around 27%.

Gulf and Asian markets fall

Stock markets in the Gulf states also fell on Thursday. Saudi Arabia lost 3.0 percent losses amid fears of the coronavirus pandemic and an oil price war.

The Saudi oil company Saudi Aramco down 2.4 percent and ended the week with a decrease of 12.1 percent as the energy giant prepares to announce its first annual earnings on Monday.

The financial market of Dubai sank down more than 8.0 percent at the close of the last trading day of the Muslim week. The actions of Abu Dhabi fell 7.4 percent.

The actions in Qatarrich in gas, a 4.5 percent, while the exchanges in Bahrain and Oman fell a 3.6 percent and a 2.6 percent, respectively.

The Kuwait stock market closed when authorities announced the closure of government offices for two weeks and they canceled international flights in an attempt to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

All seven courses ended the week with heavy losses, led by Dubai, which fell 17.4 percent.

Gulf stock markets have suffered losses throughout the week after OPEC failed to reach an agreement with Russia-led non-organization producers on further production cuts to support prices.

Asian stocks also closed at heavy losses. Tokyo lost 4.41%; Hong Kong, 3.66%; Shanghai, 1.52%; and Seoul, 3.87%. The Japanese Nikkei marks its lowest level in almost three years and the Korean Kospi in more than four years.

The yenshelter value appreciated against the dollar and the euro after Trump’s announcements, an unfavorable fact for Japanese export groups.

The dollar fell to 103.71 yen, compared to 104.55 yen from before Trump’s speech and at 104.42 yen.

The euro fell more than 1% against the dollar on Thursday, after the speech by the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, who attributed the coronavirus a “great impact” on the economy of the Eurozone.

At around 2:20 pm GMT, the euro was down 1.16% and traded at $ 1,113.

The presidents of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, and of the European Council, Charles Michel, today deplored the US decision.

According to the Swiss bank Julius Baer, Trump has failed to restore calm to investors, as evidenced by the evolution of the markets today.

Julius Baer believes that the performance of central banks and governments at this time will be a key factor in the short term.