SAN FRANCISCO: Fears about the rapidly spreading coronavirus and its impact on the global economy, which deepened on Monday with the collapse of oil prices, have evaporated over US$5 trillion of the S&P 500's market value in recent weeks.
"It's a perfect storm. You've got a lot of uncertainty in terms of how far the virus will spread in the U.S. You layer onto this the oil price cut. The third thing is financial instability, in the sense that with yields falling as far and as fast as they're falling, said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisors Alliance.
About US$250 billion has been erased from the stock market value of Microsoft since Feb. 19, more than any other U.S. company. Apple and Alphabet have seen their values shrink by over US$200 billion each, while Amazon has lost US$170 billion in market capitalization. That left the energy index down nearly 50per cent from its 52-week high, far worse than any other sector. With the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury declining to another record low on Monday, the S&P 500 financials index tumbled 11per cent, leaving it down 27per cent from its record high last month.
It wasn’t erased if they never sold, in fact I gained a few thousand in value since I bought but my short term results are all red but my long-term gain is still strong and I’m optimistic!