Global stock markets plunged today, and crude oil crashed to $27/barrel as a Saudi-led price war erupted. The fight for market share follows the collapse last week of the OPEC+ coalition which has worked to contain production in a market already struggling with weaker demand resulting from the Covid19 virus outbreaks. Dow futures was at one point down over 2,000 points before “limit down” levels were reached, and trading was halted for 15 minutes. Base metals also saw significant falls in volatile conditions with 3m copper down $200 from Fridays close to 5,433 before recovering while gold touched 1,700/oz. The favoured safe-haven currency - the Yen continued to move towards 100 vs USD putting pressure on BOJ to consider rate cuts.
At the time of writing – Dow futures -1,625, 5 pm LME closes were all down.