Foreign Desk Report
NEW YORK: Oil prices fell further Wednesday as investors worried about the economic impact of the spreading new coronavirus.
While stocks in Asia and Europe also slid lower, they bounced higher on Wall Street at the open of trading following two days of sharp losses. The Dow gained 0.4 percent at the opening bell after having fallen around three percent on Tuesday when officials said COVID-19 would likely take hold in the United States.
“The major indices are all poised to open about 0.3-0.4 percent higher in the same patented buy-the-dip trade that was seen before yesterday’s open, and which ultimately failed miserably,” noted analyst Patrick J. O’Hare at Briefing.com before the opening bell. With cases being reported in more countries — and lockdowns in nations including Austria, Italy and Spain — traders elsewhere have been growing increasingly fretful about the impact on the global economy. London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index dipped below 7,000 points, erasing all gains won over the past year, while oil prices slid to the lowest levels in more than a year.
