Markets continue to fall on virus impacts – March 17
What happened?
• Global share markets continued to fall to start this week with the US share market down 10.8% and the Australian market down 9.7% on Monday, 16 March.
• The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 1.5% this month from a range of 1.5% to 1.75% to a range of 0% to 0.25%.
• In Australia the RBA cut rates by 0.25% from 0.75% to 0.5%.
• There are expectations of another cut by the RBA this Thursday 19 March 2020.
• Investors are worried about weakness in the global economy because of:
o more Coronavirus cases outside of China, and
o a collapsed oil price deal.
• This saw investors continue selling their shares because they are concerned about the short-term impact on businesses from these threats.