Fed cuts rates to 0% to stop the crash – and fails

It’s getting even uglier.

Friday markets had their best day since 2008. And it seemed like maybe the worst was behind us.

But over the weekend, news of restaurant closures, business closures, more public meetings and events getting canceled (all because of COVID-19) had traders worried.

Then on Sunday night, traders panicked after the Fed made an emergency rate cut just an hour before futures opened.

Futures went limit down almost immediately last night (down 5%). Then this morning panic selling drove stocks to their 2nd circuit breaker, tripped after a 7%+ loss.

There was a bit of a recovery in the morning. But stocks dropped again during lunch and continued to sell off in the afternoon.

By the end of the day, stocks were trading at session lows and the major indices were down 12.0%+. It was the worst day since the 1987 market crash.

Here’s where the major indices ended the day:

• The S&P finished with a 12.0% loss. Down 325 points, the S&P ended at 2,386.
• The DOW ended 12.9% loss. Dropping 2,997 points the DOW closed at 23,186.
• The NASDAQ was 12.5% loss. With a 972 point loss, the NASDAQ finished at 6,902.

Crude Oil (CL) was hammered with stocks. Down 8.8%, Crude Oil finished the day at $28.93 a barrel.

The VIX (aka “Fear Index”) jumped 43.0% and finished at 82.69, levels not seen since 2008.

A few big names were crushed today.

Apple (AAPL) down 12.9%.

Alphabet (GOOGL) down 11.6%.

Microsoft (MSFT) down 14.7%.

It was a little hard to find, but Kroger (KR) was a green dot in sea of green up 1.3% today in spite of the market drop.