Third worst Dow drop ever | Where's the bottom? | Trump says crisis may last until August

MON, MAR 16, 2020

EVENING BRIEF

AS OF MON, MAR 16, 2020 • 05:26 ET

DJIA		20188.52
		-12.93%	-2997.10

S&P 500		2386.13
		-11.98%	-324.89

NASDAQ		6904.59
		-12.32%	-970.28

Most Active

DOW
NAME	LAST	CHG	%CHG
MSFT	135.42	-23.41	-14.74%
AAPL	242.21	-35.76	-12.86%
INTC	44.61	-9.82	-18.04%

S&P 500
NAME	LAST	CHG	%CHG
BAC	20.44	-3.72	-15.40%
GE	6.66	-1.19	-15.16%
F	5.01	-0.62	-11.01%

NASDAQ
NAME	LAST	CHG	%CHG
MSFT	135.42	-23.41	-14.74%
AAL	15.92	+1.61	+11.25%
AMD	38.71	-5.19	-11.82%

EDITOR'S NOTE

Stocks have fallen into an abyss and it seems no one can predict the bottom.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 12% as President Donald Trump offered few comforting answers to America's scariest questions in an afternoon press briefing.

Trump said the worst of the coronavirus pandemic may not be over until August - or possibly later - and that the U.S. may be headed for a recession. "We have an invisible enemy," he said. "This is bad in that it's so contagious."

The Dow's plunge was yet another for the charts - behind only the crashes of 1987 and 1929.

The steep losses compounded even after the Federal Reserve announced plans on Sunday evening to slash interest rates to zero and buy hundreds of billions of more Treasurys and mortgage securities to keep the cash flowing in financial markets.

CNBC's Tom Franck writes that the stock market is possibly pricing in something more than a recession.

Yet many analysts say that whatever happens to the economy, it will short-lived. That was also about the best hope Trump could offer markets.

"Once this virus is gone," he said. "I think you're going to have a stock market like nobody's ever seen before."

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