Monday's Stock Market Open: US Equities Drop As Crude Oil Plunges To Two-Decade Lows

Update: 2:30 p.m. EDT:

WTI crude oil futures have entered negative territory, having plunged 136.18% to minus-$6.61 per barrel.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 431.43 points to 23,811.06, while the S&P 500 fell 36.25 points to 2,838.31 and the Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 42.87 points to 8,607.27.

Update: 1:55 p.m. EDT:

WTI crude oil futures have plunged a surreal 92.61% to $1.35 per barrel.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 288.85 points to 23,953.64, while the S&P 500 fell 20.47 points to 2,854.09 and the Nasdaq Composite Index edged up 8.72 points to 8,658.86.

Update: 12:05 p.m. EDT:

U.S. stocks have turned narrowly mixed in noon Monday trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 180.39 points to 24,062.10, while the S&P 500 fell 9.62 points to 2,864.94 and the Nasdaq Composite Index edged up 26.16 points to 8,676.31.

In Europe markets finished higher, as Britain’s FTSE-100 gained 0.45%, France’s CAC-40 climbed 0.65% and Germany’s DAX rose 0.47%.

Crude oil futures plunged 44.99% to $10.05 per barrel.

Original story:

U.S. stocks fell on Monday as crude oil futures plummeted to 21-year lows on crushed demand.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 454.32 points to 23,788.17, while the S&P 500 fell 43.47 points to 2,831.09 and the Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 87.44 points to 8,562.70.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures plunged to as low as $12 per barrel – the lowest level in 21 years -- on battered demand and worries over storage capacity.

“The moves in the oil market are really just unbelievable now that we are literally running out of storage space,” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group. “I do believe that these [types] of moves is what bottoms are made of and in May and June when things start to reopen again it will go a long way in helping along with the production cuts.”

“The current forward crude oil curves for Brent and WTI are now in very deep contango, but the contango is also very front-loaded,” said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at SEB. “The curves are saying we have a big problem with the storage of oil right now.”

“The U.S. [crude oil] situation is quite dire,” warned Daniel Hynes, senior commodity strategist at ANZ. “Clearly, being a relatively landlocked market there, we are seeing real pressure on storage as a consequence of the collapse in demand. Without any sort of hope I suppose, at least over the next month about that easing up. I think prices are going to remain under pressure.”

The Chicago Fed's National Activity Index plunged to minus -4.19 in March, compared to 0.06 in February.

Meanwhile, more than 165,000 people around the world have died from coronavirus, with the U.S. accounting for one-fourth of that total.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday his state is “past the high point” of new virus cases, as the infection rate has fallen. New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy said on Saturday: “We’re flattening the curve.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the White House and Congress could soon unveil a new round of loans for small businesses.

“The equity markets and bond markets in the U.S. are telling me that my relatively optimistic outlook for the global economy is also what the markets are starting to price in,” said Stephen Jen, co-founder of SLJ Macro Partners. “There is now light at end of the tunnel. While nobody should be under the illusion that the virus will be eradicated soon, it is important to the equity markets that we have gone through most of the known ‘rolling apexes,’ through mitigation measures.”

Overnight in Asia, markets finished mixed. China’s Shanghai Composite edged up 0.5%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.21% and Japan’s Nikkei-225 fell 1.15%.

In Europe markets traded lower, as Britain’s FTSE-100 fell 0.81%, France’s CAC-40 tumbled 0.92% and Germany’s DAX dropped 1.19%.

Crude oil futures plunged 38.37% at $11.26 per barrel, Brent crude dropped 6.41% at $26.28. Gold futures slipped 0.08%.

The euro slipped 0.1% at $1.0864 while the pound sterling edged down 0.57% at $1.2429.