Stock Market Today: Live Updates and Coverage - The New York Times

Here’s what you need to know:

Stock selling reaches extremes as investors face a new crisis.

Oil markets crashed and stocks plunged on Monday as a sudden clash among the world’s biggest oil producers gave already rattled investors another reason to worry about the global economy.

Five minutes into the trading day in the United States, the plunge in the S&P 500 hit 7 percent, triggering an automatic trading halt for 15 minutes. The benchmark recovered some ground soon after trading resumed, and was down about 6 percent.

Financial markets have whipped around for weeks as investors struggled to quantify the economic impact of the spreading coronavirus: stocks have tumbled, oil prices cratered, and yields on government bonds reflected a sense among investors that there was worse still to come.

But over the weekend, two of the world’s major oil producers, Saudi Arabia and Russia, added a new element to the mix by setting off a price war for crude. While low oil prices can be beneficial, they can also disrupt economies that depend heavily on petroleum dollars. The fall in oil prices since the start of the coronavirus also signals a global economic slowdown.

Oil lost nearly a quarter of its value in futures markets on Monday, dragging shares of energy companies lower. It was what one analyst called “another acute shock to markets.”

In Europe, major stock benchmarks were down more than 7 percent. Shares ended sharply lower in Asia also.

As stocks fell, investors seeking a safe harbor pushed yields on government bonds to historic lows. The yield on the closely watched 10 year U.S. Treasury bond, which falls as the price of the bonds rise, dropped below 0.5 percent, about half the level of just a week ago.

Even before the weekend’s developments, stocks in the United States and other major financial markets had fallen by more than 10 percent in a sudden downdraft that began as the coronavirus began to spread outside of China.

The problem globally is growing worse.

On Sunday, Italy took the dramatic step of locking down a large chunk of its industrial northern region. In the United States, a top government disease expert warned that regional lockdowns there might become necessary, though he played down the idea of tight quarantines like the kind China has enacted.

A gas station in Bangkok on Monday after oil prices lost a quarter of their value in futures markets. — Credit...Mladen Antonov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Trading in stocks was temporarily halted Monday morning. Here’s why.

Five minutes into the trading day in the United States on Monday, the plunge in the S&P 500 hit 7 percent, triggering an automatic 15-minute trading halt known as a circuit breaker.

The next trading halt would come if the S&P 500 falls 13 percent from Friday’s close. Should stocks fall 20 percent, trading would end for the rest of the day.

Circuit breakers were introduced after the October 1987 Black Monday stock market crash as a way to provide time for reflection by temporarily halting the action on hectic days. The circuit breakers were revamped after the May 6, 2010, collapse in stocks that came to be known as the Flash Crash. Monday was the first time the current circuit breakers, which were established in 2013, were triggered.

It seemed to have helped on Monday: The S&P 500 recovered some ground soon after trading resumed, and was down about 6 percent by 10 a.m. in New York.

New York Fed pumps more money into banking system.

To keep cash flowing smoothly through the financial system, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Monday said it will ramp up the amount of short-term loans it offers banks.

Starting Monday and lasting through Thursday, the New York Fed will increase its daily offering of overnight repurchase agreements — essentially short-term loans to eligible banks — to at least $150 billion from $100 billion. It is also increasing its offering of two-week loans starting Tuesday, to at least $45 billion from at least $20 billion.

The Fed had already been active in the market for short-lived loans between banks and financial institutions — called the repurchase or “repo” market — for months. Those operations started after rates in that obscure but important corner of the financial system’s plumbing spiked in September. It had recently been shrinking the size of its injections as markets calmed.

Oil stocks crater following crude’s plunge.

Shares in oil companies fell sharply Monday, reflecting the loss of billions of dollars in value, as the price of crude nose-dived.They were among the worst performing stocks in the United States with shares of companies like Marathon Oil and Occidental Petroleum down about 40 percent.

Larger oil producers like Exxon Mobil and Chevron fell about 10 percent.

Elsewhere, Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia, fell much as 10 percent, to 27 riyals, the maximum amount allowed on the Riyadh stock exchange.

Royal Dutch Shell fell as much as 22 percent after trading started in Europe, but then shed about half of those losses, to about 13 percent lower in midmorning trading.

Shares in BP, based in Britain, and France-based Total were lower by about the same amount.

Trump continues to play down virus threat.

President Trump continued to play down the economic impact from the virus, comparing the number of deaths from coronavirus with the flu and noting that “Nothing is shut down, life&the economy go on.”

He also wrote in a tweet that plunging oil prices, which are bad for economies and can tip them into recession, are good for consumers.

“Good for the consumer, gasoline prices coming down!”

Democrats and White House begin talks about addressing economic fallout.

The stock market plunge intensified pressure on Congress and the Trump administration to take steps to stimulate economic growth. On Monday morning, a senior Democratic aide said discussions were starting among House committee chairmen, congressional Democrats and administration officials on what such a package might look like.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, released a joint statement on Sunday evening laying out their requests for what any legislative package responding to the coronavirus must contain. Their list included:

Government-paid sick leave for workers who are quarantined or stuck at home caring for children who have school canceled over virus fears.

Increased spending on unemployment insurance, food stamps and other safety-net programs.

“Widespread and free” testing for the coronavirus, and a guarantee that the government will pay any medical costs incurred by Americans that relate to the virus and are not covered by insurance.

Administration officials have discussed a wide range of possible stimulus measures, including tax breaks for industries hit hard by the virus, like tourism and hospitality, and a possible payroll tax cut for workers, which President Trump has repeatedly championed in recent days.

The bull market for stocks may have finally met its match.

Some of the world’s most important financial markets crossed into, or flirted with, bear market territory on Monday. That could augur an ugly week for those holding the world’s wealth.

Japanese and Australian stocks finished bruising trading days down 20 percent from their recent highs — the technical definition of a bear market, the flip side of the go-go bull market that has inspired memorials to surging capitalism. The drops represent billions of dollars in losses for some of the most valuable companies in both countries.

Stocks in Germany, France and Britain plunged on Monday morning, putting all three well into bear market territory.

Bear markets are rare and are sometimes seen as a harbinger of tougher economic times to come. Some notable bear markets in the United States include the one that ushered in the global financial crisis in 2007 and the dot-com bust in 2000.

With the S&P 500 down about 12 percent through Friday, stocks in the United States weren’t yet in bear market territory on Monday.

European leaders, citing ‘risk of an economic crisis,’ promise action.

European leaders took steps on Monday to blunt the economic impact of Italy’s shutdown and the spreading coronavirus. But it was doubtful whether the measures would be enough to keep the eurozone from slipping into recession.

Citing the risk of an “economic crisis,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called on European countries to join forces to fight the economic effects of the epidemic.

In Germany, Angela Merkel’s governing coalition agreed late Sunday on measures to help businesses survive the shock, including expanding an existing program that encourages companies to cut the hours that employees work rather than lay people off.

The German government will also increase spending on roads and other infrastructure, and discuss with industry groups ways that the government could help businesses suffering from short-term cash shortages.

The additional infrastructure spending amounts to only 0.1 percent of German economy, however. “The German government’s package is a good step in the right direction,” said Carsten Brzeski, chief eurozone economist at ING Bank. “But it will only tackle the impact from a short-lived economic shock.”

Here’s what else is happening.

Japan’s economic performance at the end of last year was worse that initially thought, the country’s government said Monday, as it issued new economic data sure to increase concerns about the future of the country’s economy. Japan said its economy had shrunk at an annualized rate of 7.1 percent in the three months that ended in December, revised down from an initial estimate of 6.3 percent last month.
To combat coronavirus-related disinformation on the internet, the British government on Monday said it has pulled together a specialized unit that will work with tech companies to identify and prevent its spread.

Reporting and research were contributed by Deborah Solomon, Jim Tankersley, Matt Phillips, Adam Satariano, Jeanna Smialek, Alexandra Stevenson, Jack Ewing, Liz Alderman, Li Yuan, Ben Dooley, Kevin Granville and Carlos Tejada.

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