The coronavirus panics the purses

Text by: David Baché

The panic has hit markets around the world for about a week due to the coronavirus crisis. All the clues are falling apart. This Friday, February 28 in the morning, the stock exchanges of Paris, London, Frankfurt, Milan or Madrid have opened lower. The losses are staggering. More than 3%, as in Shanghai and Tokyo which ended the week with falls of more than 3%.

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The Paris stock exchange opened sharply lower on Thursday morning. Since Friday February 21, the CAC 40 index has fallen by more than 11%. We are also beyond the 10% drop over the week for all of the European equity markets.

This is also the case on Wall Street: the Dow Jones even recorded this Thursday the largest drop in points on a session in its history. Oil prices are obviously not immune to this general collapse : they have been at their lowest for more than a year.

In summary, the week that is ending on the financial markets will have been the worst since the crash of 2008. Some are also beginning to use this word, others speak of "mini-crash". In any case, this financial plunge " erased the gains of the last six months ", according to the observation of the analyst Véronique Riche-Florès.

Investors around the world in panic

Like the IMF, international institutions had already warned of the risks to global growth. Many large companies have already announced losses and concerns for the continuation of their activities.
To contain the spread of the virus, containment measures and movement restrictions have been taken in many countries. Borders have been closed.

In China, the world's factory , sites have been shutdown for weeks. This has resulted in supply difficulties in just about every sector. Governments around the world are beginning to take steps to measure the real impact of the coronavirus epidemic on their economies, and to consider responses that become urgent.

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