Black Monday I (9 March) Crash Prior to opening, the
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures market experienced a 1,300-point drop based on the coronavirus and fall in the oil price described above, triggering a
trading curb, or circuit breaker, that caused the futures market to suspend trading for 15 minutes. Over the previous weekend, on 8 March, the
TA-35 and
TA-125 Indices of the
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange fell by 4.5% and 4.7% respectively, entering bear markets from their 19 February peaks. (January 2015 to November 2020). Blue highlight reflects COVID-19 period (taken to start from March 2020 as per first lockdown).|alt= The United States' Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 2,000 points, described by
The News International as "the biggest ever fall in intraday trading." The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a number of
trading circuit breakers to curb panicked selling. The
NASDAQ Composite, also in the United States, lost over 620 points. The
S&P 500 fell by 7.6%. Oil prices fell 22%, and the yields on 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury securities fell below 0.40% and 1.02% respectively. Canada's
S&P/TSX Composite Index finished the day off by more than 10%. Brazil's
IBOVESPA gave up 12%, erasing over 15 months of gains for the index. Australia's
ASX 200 lost 7.3% – its biggest daily drop since 2008, though it rebounded later in the day. London's
FTSE 100 lost 7.7%, suffering its worst drop since the
2008 financial crisis.
BP and
Shell Oil experienced intraday price drops of nearly 20% The
FTSE MIB,
CAC 40, and
DAX tanked as well, with Italy affected the most as the
COVID-19 pandemic in the country continues. They fell 11.2%, 8.4%, and 7.9% respectively. The
STOXX Europe 600 fell to more than 20% below its peak earlier in the year. In a number of Asian markets—Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia—shares declined over 20% from their most recent peaks, entering
bear market territory. In Japan, the
Nikkei 225 plummeted 5.1%. In Singapore, the
Straits Times Index fell 6.03%. In China, the
CSI 300 Index lost 3%. In Hong Kong, the
Hang Seng index sank 4.2%. In Pakistan, the
PSX saw the largest ever intra-day plunge in the country's history, losing 2,302 points or 6.0%. The market closed with the
KSE 100 index down 3.1%. In India, the
BSE SENSEX closed 1,942 points lower at 35,635 while the
NSE Nifty 50 was down by 538 points to 10,451.
The Washington Post posited that coronavirus-related turmoil could spark a collapse of the
corporate debt bubble, sparking and worsening a
recession. The
Central Bank of Russia announced that it would suspend
foreign exchange market purchases in domestic markets for 30 days, while the Central Bank of Brazil auctioned an additional $3.465 billion the foreign exchange market in two separate transactions and the Bank of Mexico increased its foreign exchange auctions program from $20 billion to $30 billion. After announcing a $120 billion fiscal stimulus programs on 2 December, Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe announced additional government spending, while Indonesian Finance Minister
Sri Mulyani announced additional stimulus as well.
Etymology As the hashtag #BlackMonday trended on Twitter, news organizations such as the
Associated Press,
The Economist, and
Yahoo Finance UK adopted the term on the day it occurred. While
The Guardian initially referred to it as "Crash Monday", they also later referred to it as "The Black Monday of 2020" to distinguish it from the
1987 crash of the same name. The Associated Press also quoted an analyst of the Australian finance company
OFX as saying, "A blend of shocks have sent the markets into a frenzy on what may only be described as 'Black Monday' ... A combination of a Russia vs. Saudi Arabia oil price war, a crash in equities, and escalations in coronavirus woes have created a killer cocktail to worsen last week's hangover."
10–11 March run and entered a
bear market. Symbolic statues from the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange pictured. On the following day of trading, US stocks recouped some of the losses which happened on Monday, rising by more than 4%. This was attributed to a potential fiscal stimulus, such as a potential 0% payroll tax, being proposed by US President
Donald Trump. On Wednesday, however, stocks fell once more, and resulted in the DJIA entering a
bear market (i.e. 20% drop from the most recent peak) for the first time in 11 years, ending the longest
bull market in American stock market history. On 10 March, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the NASDAQ Composite, and the S&P 500 all closed 4.9% up, while Asia-Pacific stock markets closed up and European stock markets closed down. Oil prices rose by 10%, while yields on 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury securities rose to 0.70% and 1.16% respectively. The Central Bank of Russia announced a repo auction of
₽500 billion (or $7 billion) and increased its
foreign exchange swap operation limit to up to $5 billion. while Bank Indonesia conducted open market purchases of government bonds and Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani announced tax-related stimulus. Australian Prime Minister
Scott Morrison announced
A$2.4 billion in government spending for pandemic countermeasures. On 11 March, Asia-Pacific and European stock markets closed lower (with the
S&P/ASX 200 on the
Australian Securities Exchange falling to more than 20% below its 52-week high), while the NASDAQ Composite and the S&P 500 both fell 5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 6% (with the Dow also falling to more than 20% below its most recent record high set on 19 February). Oil prices fell by 4%, while the yield on 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury securities rose to 0.82% and 1.33% respectively. The
Índice Bovespa of the
Brazil Stock Exchange fell by 8.5% to 27% on the year, while the
S&P/TSX Composite Index on the
Toronto Stock Exchange also fell to more than 20 percent below its most recent peak on 20 February. The Bank of England announced that it would cut its bank rate by 25 basis points, while
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced
£30 billion in government spending with £12 billion specifically directed at pandemic countermeasures. The Federal Reserve announced that it would increase the top level of its overnight repurchase operations to $175 billion. The Bank of Japan announced that it was increasing its annual target of purchases of
exchange-traded funds above the current ¥6 trillion (or $57 billion). Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani announced
tax relief for the
Indonesian manufacturing sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. Italian Prime Minister
Giuseppe Conte announced a €25 billion (or $28 billion) fiscal stimulus.
United States presidential address On 11 March, US president Donald Trump gave a public address. In the speech, the president announced a temporary 30-day
travel ban on all European goods and passengers from Europe in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump's initial statements were later corrected: the ban affected people who were not US citizens and who in the past two weeks had visited the 26-member
Schengen Area, but did not include trade goods and cargo and excluded the United Kingdom and
Republic of Ireland. These countries were added to the ban 3 days later. Trump did not consult with the European Union before imposing the travel ban. Carmen Reinicke of
Business Insider wrote that Trump's address to the nation "failed to calm investors' concerns about the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak". According to Ben Levisohn, writer for
''Barron's'', "Dow futures were up around 300 points before the president's address began. And then the president started talking—and futures started falling."
Black Thursday (12 March) Black Thursday was a global
stock market crash on 12 March 2020, as part of the greater 2020 stock market crash. US stock markets suffered from the greatest single-day percentage fall since the
1987 stock market crash. Following Black Monday three days earlier, Black Thursday was attributed to the
COVID-19 pandemic and a lack of investor confidence in US President Donald Trump after he declared a 30-day
travel ban against the
Schengen Area. Additionally, the
European Central Bank, under the lead of
Christine Lagarde, decided to not cut interest rates despite market expectations, leading to a drop in
S&P 500 futures of more than 200 points in less than an hour. Bank Indonesia announced open market purchases of
Rp4 trillion (or $276.53 million) in government bonds, while Bank Indonesia Governor
Perry Warjiyo stated that Bank Indonesia's open market purchases of government bonds had climbed to Rp130 trillion on the year and Rp110 trillion since the end of January. Despite declining to cut its deposit rate, the European Central Bank increased its
asset purchases by €120 billion (or $135 billion), while the Federal Reserve announced $1.5 trillion in open market purchases. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a A$17.6 billion fiscal stimulus package. The
Reserve Bank of India announced that it would conduct a six-month $2 billion
currency swap for
U.S. dollars, while the Reserve Bank of Australia announced A$8.8 billion in repurchases of government bonds. The Central Bank of Brazil auctioned $1.78 billion
foreign exchange spots. Asia-Pacific stock markets closed down with the
Nikkei 225 of the
Tokyo Stock Exchange, the
Hang Seng Index of the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the
IDX Composite of the
Indonesia Stock Exchange falling more than 20% below their 52-week highs. European stock markets closed down 11% with the UK
FTSE 100, German
DAX, French
CAC 40, Italian
FTSE MIB, Finnish
OMX Helsinki 25, Swedish
OMX Stockholm 30,
OMX Nordic 40, and the Latvian
OMX Riga indices all closing more than 20% below their most recent peaks. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down an additional 10%, the NASDAQ Composite closed down 9.4%, and the S&P 500 closed down 9.5%. This caused the NASDAQ and S&P 500 to fall to more than 20% below their all time highs, and so the declines activated a trading curb at the
New York Stock Exchange for the second time that week. Oil prices dropped by 8%, while the yields on 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury securities increased to 0.86% and 1.45% (and their
yield curve finished
normal).
Crash The US's Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 suffered from the greatest single-day percentage fall since the
1987 stock market crash, as did the UK's
FTSE 100, which fell 10.87%. The Canadian
S&P/TSX Composite Index dropped 12%, its largest one-day drop since 1940. The
FTSE MIB Italian index closed with a −16.92% loss, the worst in its history. Germany's
DAX fell 12.24% and France's CAC 12.28%. In Brazil, the
Ibovespa plummeted 14.78%, after trading in the
B3 was halted twice within the
intraday; it also moved below the 70,000 mark before closing above it. The
NIFTY 50 on the
National Stock Exchange of India fell 7.89% to more than 20% below its most recent peak, while the
BSE SENSEX on the
Bombay Stock Exchange fell 2,919 (or 8.18%) to 32,778. The benchmark stock market index on the
Johannesburg Stock Exchange fell by 9.3%. The
MERVAL on the
Buenos Aires Stock Exchange fell 9.5% to 19.5% on the week. 12 March was the second time, following 9 March drop, that the 7%-drop circuit breaker was triggered since being implemented in 2013. The
Mexican peso also set an all-time record low against the U.S. dollar, trading at 22.99 pesos.
United States Soon after trading began, a Level-1
trading curb was triggered on major US stock markets due to increased selling, leading to a 15-minute halt on trading. The Dow fell 2,353 points, losing all of its gains from its lowest point in 2018. The drop surpassed Black Monday, which occurred just a few days before, to be the greatest single-day point drop ever. Together with the drops of 1,191 and 1,465 points on 27 February and 11 March, the four
largest Dow daily losses up to Black Thursday were all linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. President Trump reacted to the crash by defending his travel ban and predicting that the stock market would eventually recover with central bank intervention.
13 March On 13 March, European stock markets closed mostly up while Asia-Pacific stock markets mostly closed down (except for the S&P/ASX 200 which rose by 4.4%), while the Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ Composite, and the S&P 500 all rose by more than 9% (in their largest rally since 2008). The
RTS Index on the
Moscow Exchange finished 27% down on the week, the Tadawul All-Share Index on the
Saudi Stock Exchange finished 17% percent down, the benchmark index on the
Borsa Istanbul finished 15% down, and the
Indice de Precios y Cotizaciones on the
Mexican Stock Exchange finished 9% down. Though finishing up on the day, oil prices posted their largest single-week decline since 2008, while yields on 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury securities rose to over 1% and 1.6% respectively (and their yield curve remained normal). The
Índice Bovespa of the Brazil Stock Exchange closed 13% up. U.S. President Donald Trump declared the COVID-19 pandemic to be a
national public health emergency thus releasing $50 billion in government spending directed to pandemic countermeasures.
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi stated that the
U.S. House of Representatives would pass a subsequent
appropriations and pandemic countermeasures bill including a
sick leave expansion, which President Trump reversed his initial opposition to and endorsed. Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau announced that the
Government of Canada was preparing a fiscal stimulus program, with Canadian Finance Minister
Bill Morneau stating that it would include a C$10 billion business credit-line. The Bank of Canada announced an additional 50 basis point cut to its overnight rate. The People's Bank of China announced that it would reduce its reserve requirement by 50 to 100 basis points from the current 12.5%, releasing $79 billion into the money supply. The Bank of Japan announced ¥200 billion (or $1.9 billion) of open market purchases of government bonds. The Bank of Canada announced
C$7.5 billion of open market purchases. The
Brazilian Finance Ministry announced that it was cancelling a series of bond auctions for the upcoming week. The Central Bank of Russia announced that it would purchase at auction ₽500 billion (or $6.8 billion) in repurchase agreements. The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey conducted
₺29 billion (or $4.6 billion) in open market repurchases of government bonds. Bank Indonesia conducted Rp6 trillion (or $405 billion) of open market purchases of government bonds, while Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani announced Rp120 trillion ($8.1 billion) in additional fiscal stimulus. == 16–20 March ==