By Luke Onoroto ‘20

The world is in the face of what could be a terrible epidemic. The Coronavirus is an extremely contagious disease that has infected tens of thousands of individuals and killing thousands. Cases have begun to pop up globally, the US included, and scientists see no immediate cure.

Governments are panicking, airports are closing, and hospitals are on double time.

Just when it seems like things can’t get any worse, the virus has also dealt a major blow to the global economy.

The crash was likely due to the damage of supply chains and the shutdown of multiple Chinese factories due to the outbreak. Not to mention the sheer amount of panic has given many investors cold feet.

Stock values are doing miserably in the midst of this epidemic, so bad so that the Dow has dropped thousands of points and many large companies are performing worse than they have in months.

According to NBC news, the coronavirus crash has wiped an earth-shattering $5 trillion dollars out of the stock market in the matter of about a week. A crash of such magnitude has not been seen since the 2008 housing market crisis.

The situation has gotten so desperate that the Federal Reserve placed an emergency interest rate cut in an attempt to stabilize the situation.

While the state of the market may seem dire, many investors predict that the hysteria may just blow over and stocks could return to normal soon enough.

Hopefully these investors are right, but for now the virus shows no sign of slowing down and the market will hurt as the people do.

Sources:

https://www.vox.com/2020/2/28/21157689/coronavirus-stock-crash-dow-recession

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/markets/coronavirus-crash-wipes-5-trillion-world-stocks-n1144636