Steep Selloff Continues Despite Stock Market Circuit Breaker
Oil is continuing its deep dive this afternoon
After trading was halted for 15 minutes this morning to prevent a further plunge, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI), the S&P 500 Index (SPX), and Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) are all down between 6% and 7% at midday, with the Dow falling over 2,000 points at its worst. Saudi Arabia cutting official crude selling prices for April and its subsequent price war is posing the largest threat for Wall Street today, all amidst the seemingly endless coronavirus headwinds. In response, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield dropped below 0.5% for the first time ever.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
One stock sporting unusual options volume today is Mattel Inc (NASDAQ:MAT), the equity seeing 43,000 puts traded so far, 37 times the expected rate. Most popular by a longshot is the April 9 put, where most of the 42,000 contracts look to have been sold to open. The catalyst is unclear, but MAT was last seen down 10.1% at $10.49, just off a four-month low.
One of the stocks topping the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) today is independent crude oil tanker company DHT Holdings Inc (NYSE:DHT), rising 6.89% at $5.05 at last check. It was raised to "buy" from "hold" at Stifel, and is now on track to break above a long-term layer of resistance at its 30-day moving average.
Apache Corp (NYSE:APA) is seeing a steep drop alongside the rest of the oil sector, down 41.06% to trade at $12.20, after earlier hitting a record low of $11.55. These losses are likely being exacerbated by a downgrade to a "hold" from "buy" at SunTrust Robinson, adding to the stock's now 53% year-to-date deficit.