ANOTHER DAY OF LOSSES

The escalating coronavirus emergency Thursday sent stocks to their worst losses since the Black Monday crash of 1987, extending a sell-off that has now wiped out most of Wall Street’s big run-up since President Donald Trump’s election.

The stock market posted its largest one-day loss since 1987, as the outbreak continues to hammer the global economy. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped almost 2,353 points to close at 21,200.47.

The S&P 500 plummeted 9.5%, for a total drop of 26.7% from its all-time high, set just last month. That puts it way past the 20% threshold to make this a bear market, snapping an unprecedented, nearly 11-year bull-market run. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 10% for its worst day since a nearly 23% drop on Oct. 19, 1987.

European markets lost 12% in one of their worst days ever, even after the European Central Bank pledged to buy more bonds and offer more help for the economy.

The heavy losses came amid a cascade of cancellations and shutdowns across the globe — including Trump’s suspension of most travel to the U.S. from Europe — and rising worries the White House and other authorities around the world can’t or won’t counter the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic any time soon.

“The news just continues to get worse, and the travel ban puts an exclamation point on the weakness we’re going to see in global GDP and, in turn, the U.S.,” said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab. “We’re starting to get a sense of how dire the impact on the economy is going to be. Each day the news doesn’t get better, it gets worse. It’s now has hit Main Street to a more significant degree.”

Stocks fell so fast on Wall Street at the opening bell that they triggered an automatic, 15-minute trading halt for the second time this week. The so-called circuit breakers were first adopted after the 1987 crash, and until this week hadn’t been tripped since 1997.

The Dow briefly turned upward and halved its losses at one point in the afternoon after the Federal Reserve announced it would step in to ease “highly unusual disruptions” in the Treasury market. But the burst of momentum quickly faded.

The Fed said it’s making available at least $2 trillion in shortterm lending as a way to ensure the Treasury market can function smoothly. It’s also broadening its ongoing $60 billion-amonth purchases of Treasurys to include longer-term bonds.

Initially, the Fed’s actions led the stock market to sharply pare its deep losses, before share prices fell back down.

Just last month, the Dow was boasting a nearly 50% gain since Trump took the oath of office Jan. 20, 2017. By Thursday’s close, the Dow was clinging to a 6.9% gain, though it was still up nearly 16% since just before Trump’s election in November 2016.

On Wednesday, the Dow finished the day down more than 20% from its all-time high, set just last month, officially entering what is known as a bear market for the first time in over a decade.

The combined health crisis and retreat on Wall Street heightened fears of a recession.

“This is bad. The worst and fastest stock market correction in our career,” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union, said in a research note overnight.