Here We Go Again: Dow Drops 800 Points As Stock Market Turmoil Continues

Avie Schneider

March 11, 2020 / 6:37 am

caption: The stock market has continued to be volatile in in recent weeks over growing fears that the coronavirus epidemic will push the world economy into recession.

Updated at 10:01 a.m. ET

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell yet again Wednesday morning after staging a rally a day earlier. Just on Monday, the stock market had its worse drop since 2008 amid fears that the growing coronavirus epidemic would push the global economy into recession.

The blue chip index was down more than 800 points, or 3.2%, Wednesday morning. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were down more than 2.5%.

The Dow rose 1,167 points, or 4.9%, on Tuesday — a partial rebound from Monday's more than 2,000-point drop, which was a stunning loss of about 7.8%.

The Federal Reserve and other central banks have been cutting interest rates, and the U.S. and other governments have been rolling out aid and stimulus proposals to help cushion the economic blow of the outbreak.

The Bank of England was the latest central bank to lower rates, announcing an emergency 0.5-percentage-point cut on Wednesday. It said the cut "will help to support business and consumer confidence at a difficult time, to bolster the cash flows of businesses and households, and to reduce the cost, and to improve the availability, of finance."

Oil prices, which can reflect economic demand, have also been volatile after Saudi Arabia unexpectedly decided to slash its prices for crude last weekend. The price of Brent, a global benchmark, was down more than 2% Wednesday. It has fallen 27% over the past five trading days. [Copyright 2020 NPR]