Asia Stock Markets Face Fluctuated Session after Dow Falls Nearly 3,000pts Overnight!

Stocks in Asia traded mix on Tuesday after shares on Wall Street just had their biggest one-day drop since 1987 overnight.

 

As of 9:00 local time in Thailand, Nikkei rose 2.21%, SSEC gained 0.12%, HSI dropped 0.07%, ASX 200 jumped 4.33% and Kospi fell 0.39%. The Philippines had suspended its stocks, bonds and currency trading until further notice.

The moves followed President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision on Monday to widen a month-long lockdown of Manila to cover the country’s main Luzon island, home to at least 57 million people. The virus has infected at least 140 people in the country with 12 deaths.

Earlier today, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) slashed its cash rate by 25 bps to its record low at 0.5%. RBA also released its minutes from the meeting in which the bank said: “In considering the policy decision, members observed that it was becoming increasingly clear that COVID-19 would cause major disruption to economic activity around the world.”

 

However, Wall Street had just witnessed their biggest plummet in more than three decades overnight. Dow Jones dropped 2,997.10 points or 12.9% to close at 20,188.52 points. S&P 500 shed 12% to hit its lowest level since December 2018, while Nasdaq plunged 12.3%, posting its worst day ever.

After the closing of Monday session, Dow Jones had lost 31.7% from its all-time high and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq plunged more than 29% from their records last month. Dow Jones also posted its biggest one-day loss since the “Black Monday” three decades ago when it fell 22%.

Frank Cappelleri, executive director at Instinet wrote in a note, saying that the markets are getting no break with yesterday’s historic Fed actions and COVID-19 dominating the world’s headlines. “While the news continues to worsen and with the price action doing things we’ve only seen a handful of other times in the last century, it’s nearly impossible to keep things in perspective,” he added.