The 11-year bull market, which grew in tandem with one of the longest economic expansions in United States history, weathered a European debt crisis and survived President Trump’s trade war with China, is dead — a casualty of the global coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 5.9 percent, completing a decline of 20.3 percent from a high reached on Feb. 12 and signaling a bear market. That threshold — a fall of 20 percent from a high — suggests a fundamental change in investors’ view of the economy and could be a precursor to a recession. The catalyst of this sudden fall was an outbreak that has spread swiftly across the globe, disrupting supply chains from Asia to Europe to the United States and forcing quarantines and travel restrictions that have ground entire countries to a halt. The pandemic, which has infected tens of thousands of people in more than 100 countries, has sent the market careening downward over the past few weeks — despite occasional reversals on bits of promising news.

Source: New York Times March 11, 2020 21:17 UTC