Markets extend slump; oil down 10% intra-day

World stock markets tumbled on Friday as fears of economic damage intensified with the global tally of coronavirus cases crossing 100,000. Brent crude, too, fell as much as 10 per cent intra-day, before recording a minor recovery.

In the US, the Dow Jones shed more than 500 points and the S&P500 fell for the tenth time in the past 12 sessions as the virus crippled supply chains and prompted a sharp cut to global economic growth forecasts for 2020.

At 11.30 pm IST, the Dow Jones was down 513 points or 1.96 per cent, and the S&P500 was down 75 points or 2.50 per cent. The Nasdaq Composite was down 240 points or 2.72 per cent. The 10-year US treasury yield, too, fell to a new all-time low under 0.7 per cent, as flight to bonds continued.

The FTSE, DAX and european stocks continued their slide (most of them fell over 3 per cent) after the Japanese market dropped to a six-month low, with 97 per cent of shares on the Tokyo exchange’s main board in the red. Airline and travel stocks have been among the worst affected as people cancelled non-essential travel.

Meanwhile, a three-year pact between Opec and Russia ended in acrimony after Moscow refused to support deeper oil cuts to cope with the outbreak of coronavirus and Opec responded by removing all limits on its own production.

Oil prices plunged 10 per cent as the development revived fears of a 2014 price crash, when Saudi Arabia and Russia fought for market share with US shale oil producers, which have never participated in output limiting pacts.

Brent crude was trading at $46.36/barrel (down 7.84 per cent) at 11.46 pm IST.