PIDE COVID-19 Blog (no. 14) : covid-19 and world’s financial markets

Abstract

“Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global economy has been widely discussed in recent weeks. As the number of cases increase across the world, people are worried about its impact on almost all sectors of the economy, ranging from aviation, retail industry, tourism, hospitality to the manufacturing sector. Globally, the Coronavirus shock is being considered to be even more severe than the Great Financial Crisis of 2007–08. While it is difficult to estimate when the outbreak will end, most epidemiologists expect the situation to be under control by the end of August 2020, which is still months away. Stock markets all over have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with worrying volatility, as traders have panic-sold out of fear. As a result, world-wide circuit-breakers have been triggered many times to prevent panic-trading. Even S&P 500 triggered level-1 market wide circuit breakers on March 9, 12 and 16 and 18th based on the rule, ‘drop of 7% from the previous close before 3:25 pm and market pauses for 15 minutes’. Trading also, traditionally, halts on both the Dow and the Nasdaq when a circuit-breaker is triggered on the S&P 500.”