Dow briefly craters below 19,000 as market plunge wipes out Trump-era gains

By Jonathan Garber FOXBusiness

Oil plunged by more than 24 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average careened below 19,000 on Wednesday, wiping out all of the gains from the Trump era.

The blue-chip index fell more than 2,200 points or 10.3 percent while the benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded down by 9.8 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively.

Earlier Wednesday, trading was halted for the second time this week, when the S&P tumbled 7 percent as investors reacted to a coronavirus pandemic that has slowed the economies of the U.S. and some European nations almost to a standstill.

A 13 percent drop in the S&P 500 would trigger a second trading halt, unless that level was reached in the final 35 minutes of trading.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
I:DJI	DOW JONES AVERAGES	19231.29	-2,006.09	-9.45%
SP500	S&P 500	2338.26	-190.93	-7.55%
I:COMP	NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX	6848.422765	-486.36	-6.63%

The selling comes as the Trump administration and Congress hammer out the details of a $1 trillion stimulus package designed to prop up the most harshly pummeled sectors of the U.S. economy and give cash to people out of work.

Looking at stocks, Boeing shares were rocked as the company called for a $60 billion bailout for aerospace manufacturers.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
BA	BOEING COMPANY	99.21	-24.93	-20.08%
UAL	UNITED AIRLINES HLDG.	22.69	-7.98	-26.02%
DAL	DELTA AIR LINES INC.	24.37	-7.37	-23.22%
AAL	AMERICAN AIRLINES GROUP INC.	12.74	-2.84	-18.23%
LUV	SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.	34.23	-4.01	-10.50%

Airlines, restaurants, hotels and casino operators remained under pressure as the Trump administration weighs assistance for the industries hit hardest by the pandemic.

Meanwhile, plunging oil prices hammered energy giants ExxonMobil and Chevron and weighed heavily on Hess Corp. and Continental Resources. West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down 24.4 percent to $20.37 a barrel, its lowest in 18 years.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
XOM	EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION	32.72	-4.09	-11.11%
CVX	CHEVRON CORP.	57.04	-13.65	-19.31%
CLR	CONTINENTAL RESOURCES	7.53	-0.76	-9.17%
HES	HESS CORPORATION	28.87	-1.75	-5.72%

Miners slid as the price of an ounce of gold slipped 3.1 percent to $1,477.30 an ounce.

On the earnings front, FedEx fell after announcing its adjusted net income dropped 53.5 percent from a year earlier to $371 million and suspending its 2020 profit outlook due to uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

General Mills raised its adjusted profit forecast, but its shares declined nonetheless.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
HES	HESS CORPORATION	28.66	-1.96	-6.40%
GIS	GENERAL MILLS	56.86	-2.81	-4.71%

Elsewhere, the yield curve steepened as investors bought shorter-dated Treasurys and sold longer-dated ones. The yield on the 2-year note was down 3.5 basis points at 0.426 percent while the yield on the 10-year note was up 13 basis points at 1.126 percent.

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The steeper curve was unable to give relief to banks, which continued to see their share prices sink.

Winners were few and far between, with meal-delivery service Blue Apron among the only bright spots.

The company’s shares soared as investors speculated that it would benefit from restaurants closing their dining rooms. Shares were already up 187 percent this week through Tuesday.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
APRN	BLUE APRON HOLDINGS INC	14.52	+7.97	+121.62%

European markets were sharply lower, with France’s CAC falling 5.9 percent, Germany’s DAX sliding 5.6 percent and Britain’s FTSE tumbling 4.1 percent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng paced the decline in Asia, falling 4.2 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite and Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.8 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.