The Dow just crashed 3,000 points — here is why it happened

Brian Sozzi · Executive Editor

Updated Mon, Mar 16, 2020, 2:39 PM 2 min read

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 3,000 points Monday with selling pressure accelerating into the close as Trump gave the nation an update on the coronavirus. “The President’s press conference where he said this virus could cause disruption into August was longer than many anticipated. Of course, no one knows, but that was a wakeup call for some investors who thought this may be much shorter in nature,” SunTrust chief markets strategist Keith Lerner told Yahoo Finance via email.

Other experts agreed with that as the trigger point for the swift selloff over the final 30 minutes of trading.

“The whole thing is about how long this lasts. It’s the most important variable in the market by a mile,” said Sevens Report Research founder Tom Essaye via email. “Trump saying July or August is way past what the market was thinking. If that’s true the economic pain will be much worse than the market was expecting — we are going to need bailouts everywhere if that’s the case.”

Further damaging frail market sentiment was the president suggesting the U.S. may be headed into a recession. Trump’s promise of a “backstop” for airlines struggling to deal with the economic fallout of coronavirus did little to soothe investor psyche.

A trader has his head in his hand on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, March 12, 2020. The stock market had its biggest drop since the Black Monday crash of 1987 as fears of economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis deepened. The Dow industrials plunged more than 2,300 points, or 10%. The vast majority of people recover from the new coronavirus. According to the World Health Organization, most people recover in about two to six weeks, depending on the severity of the illness. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) — A trader has his head in his hand on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

To be sure, today’s session had all the making of a historic one from the get-go.

The S&P 500 opened more than 8% lower Monday, immediately triggering a 15-minute trading halt, launched when an index falls more than 7% from the prior session’s close. Otherwise known as a “circuit breaker”, it’s intended to prevent further immediate losses. It’s the third time in the past week in which circuit breakers have been triggered.

Stocks made a feeble rally attempt intraday, but it proved short-lived. Shares of household names such as Macy’s, Ford, Microsoft, General Electric and Tesla all got slammed.

[Also read: Coronavirus hits retailers worldwide: Store closures and reduced hours]

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and co-anchor of The First Trade at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance