Global stock markets found themselves in crisis on Thursday as the outbreak of Coronavirus continues to take its toll on investor confidence.
For the second time this week, the US Dow Jones market was suspended by circuit breakers, a measure designed to stop prices going into free fall.
On Thursday, the Federal Reserve's New York branch announced it would be pumping $1.5 trillion into debt markets to ease the strain. It caused an upturn in prices briefly, for about 15 minutes in fact, before the negative trend continued.
London's FTSE100 saw its worst day of trading since Black Monday in 1987 and its third worst day in history. Across Europe, major markets were all down by nearly 12%.
Markets saw European investors rush to sell their shares after US President Donald Trump ordered a travel ban on 26 European countries. It is understood that the European Central Bank (ECB)'s failure to follow the Bank of England's decision to slash interest rates.
Many financial commentators have stressed that action on interest rates can only have a finite impact, and fiscal policy from individual governments would be more important in a bid to tackle the economic impact of the Coronavirus outbreak. Even the raft of extra spending pledges made by the government in Wednesday's Budget have been described in some parts as a 'plaster' to cope with the next few weeks, not months.
James Tao, an analyst at Commsec in Australia, said: "There is a sense of fear and panic. It's one of those situations where there is so much uncertainty that no-one quite knows how to respond...if it's fight or flights, many people are choosing flight at the moment."
