EricaVillalon

Oil markets continued to head south Wednesday, with U.S. crude futures tumbling to a near 18-year low as travel and social lockdowns sparked by the coronavirus epidemic knocked the outlook for demand. AT 9:00 AM ET (1300 GMT), U.S. crude futures traded 8.7% lower at $24.94 a barrel, its lowest since May 2002. The international benchmark Brent contract fell 5.2% to $27.23, its lowest since May 2003. The battleground against the virus has moved from Asia to Europe and America. Deaths have continued to soar in Italy and Spain, prompting the European Union to ban travellers from outside the bloc for 30 days in an unprecedented move to seal its borders. Travel within Europe has also been severely limited by public health measures closing most non-essential business activity. The Trump administration has recommended the closure of restaurants, bars and schools while assembling a $1.2 trillion stimulus plan that would shortly send cash to Americans, and backstop airl

Wednesday March 11 2020 Markets continue to fall... U.S. stock futures pointed to a sharply lower open on Wednesday after strong gains in the previous session, amid doubts over what U.S. President Donald Trump said would be “major” fiscal stimulus measures to counter the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. By 07:50 AM ET (1150 GMT), Dow futures dropped 632 points, or around 2.5%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were both down around 2.6%.  Wall Street reversed course on Tuesday, with the three main indexes all rising by nearly 5%  in anticipation of a major policy announcement. That pulled them back from the brink of a bear market. But while Trump met with fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, he did not outline any measures to offset the economic fallout from the virus outbreak. A scheduled news conference took place without the President. Futures received only a temporary lift from the Bank of England, which earlier joined oth