Trillions erased from US stocks

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. The S&P 500's largest 10 companies by market capitalisation have seen their combined values drop by more than US$1.4 trillion. About US$250 billion has been erased from the stock market value of Microsoft since Feb. 19, more than any other US company. Apple and Alphabet have seen their values shrink by over US$200 billion each, while Amazon has lost US$170 billion in market capitalisation. "It's a perfect storm. You've got a lot of uncertainty in terms of how far the virus will spread in the US. 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. Photo Nampa/AFP