Oil Crashes, Equities Plunge in‘Wild’ Trading: Markets Wrap

• Coronavirus deaths soar in Italy; Apple lets some work at home.

Oil prices crashed and equities plunged after crude producers launched a price war, an additional disruption to a global economy already struggling thanks to the Coronavirus. Bonds surged.

Among the tumultuous moves to kick off the week:

• Ten-year Treasury yield fell below 0.5% for first time; 30-year yield dropped under 1% for first time.
• Crude plummeted more than 30% at one point, sliding the most since the Gulf War in 1991.
• Futures on the S&P 500 Index cratered as much as 5%, triggering trading curbs.
• Norway’s krone slid to its weakest against the dollar since the 1980s. Mexico’s peso fell as much as 6%, to the weakest since the aftermath of border-wall advocate President Donald Trump taking office.
• Australian and New Zealand 10-year government bond yields hit fresh record lows.
• Australia’s benchmark stock index plunged the most since 2008.
• The yen soared to its strongest since 2016.

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