Fears and reality starting to go hand-in-hand
With the death toll from the coronavirus rising and the infected also increasing (with questioning of the numbers), the US stocks are opening with sharply lower on global slowdown fears.
A snapshot of the markets currently shows:
- S&P index, -54.27 points or -1.65% at 3241.20
- NASDAQ index -206.75 points or -2.22% at 9108.16
- Dow down 455 points or -1.57% at 28534.32
US yields are also sharply lower as traders flow into the relative safety of US treasuries:
Some individual stocks:
- Apple, -2.85%
- Disney, -2.77%
- Alphabet, -2.4%
- Microsoft, -2.15%
- Facebook, -1.77%
- Amazon, -1.69%
Banks and financials are also lower:
- Morgan Stanley, -2.57%
- Citigroup, -2.37%
- Charles Schwab, -2.18%
- Goldman Sachs, -2.16%
The Vix index - a measure of market volatility is up to 18.12%, up 3.56 points or +24%. As fear volatility increase the Vix rises. Relative to recent spikes, the level is still relatively low. The 2019 spike highs reached up to 24.81% (with other peaks at 23.38% and 21.46%).
