The daily business briefing: March 19, 2020

Ongoing stock selloff essentially erases Trump-era gains, Trump invokes wartime authority to order increased industrial production, and more

Traders on Wall Street
(Image credit: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images)

1. Stocks continue to fall, erasing gains since Trump took office

Trading on the New York Stock Exchange was once again halted on Wednesday as stocks plummeted, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average officially erased nearly all of its gains since President Trump was inaugurated. The Dow on Wednesday fell below 19,732 points, the number it closed at the day before Trump's inauguration in January 2017. As the S&P 500 fell 7 percent, trading on the New York Stock Exchange was halted for 15 minutes. This is the fourth time the stock market's circuit breaker has triggered a suspension in trading this month amid the escalating coronavirus crisis. "Stocks are crashing, commodities are crashing, and oil prices are crashing," said Chris Brightman of Research Affiliates. "Fear has gripped markets." U.S. stock futures fell early Thursday.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.