Stocks plunge into bear market territory: March 12, 2020

It's no secret President Donald Trump tracks the stock market almost constantly. In many ways, he views the Dow as a real-time report card on his presidency.

Yet Trump is expressing confidence, at least outwardly, about the market despite staggering losses suffered in recent weeks.

"The markets are going to be just fine," Trump told reporters Thursday at the White House.

His comments came after Wall Street experienced such severe selling that the New York Stock Exchange halted trading for 15 minutes Thursday, the second market timeout in four days.

The S&P 500 plummeted into bear market territory after Trump announced a travel ban with Europe. If the index closes there, it would mark the end of the 11-year bull market.

The market plunge has been driven by fears that the coronavirus pandemic will set off a recession. Trump is urging lawmakers to quickly enact a stimulus package of tax cuts and other assistance aimed at limiting the economic damage.

The Dow is floating around 21,800 points today. That's about 1,700 points lower than where it closed yesterday. It's also lower than at any point in 2019 ... or 2018.

Yup, the last time the Dow was this low was September 2017. The Equifax data breach had just exposed just about every American's personal information. And Hurricane Maria had just slammed into Puerto Rico.

The Dow is down about 7.3%. If it falls another few percentage points, it'll be on pace for its worst day since October 26, 1987.

There's not much good news happening today, but if you're an investor, two stocks could have made you some money.

Cabot Oil & Gas (COG), which mostly produces natural gas, is the market leader: up 2.5%. Plummeting oil prices are good news for Cabot, because less American oil production means less natural gas production, which could boost prices.

Akamai (AKAM) is also up -- 1.3%. An analyst from Baird upgraded the stock today, because the cloud services provider is going to get some heavy use from folks around the world working from home.

Stocks are selling off around the world, but European exchanges are looking particularly bad.

Investors hoping for further interest rate cuts from the European Central Bank today were disappointed. The bank announced bond buying and relief for retail banks.

Germany's DAX is down more than 9.6%, on track for its worst day since 1987.

In France, the CAC 40 dropped 9.8%, while the UK's FTSE 100 is down nearly 9%.

The oil market's horrific week keeps getting worse.

US oil prices plunged another 7% to $30.60 a barrel Thursday after President Donald Trump imposed a passenger travel ban with Europe. Crude touched a low of $30.02 a barrel. At that level, prices were down a stunning 27% this week alone.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, suffered even more severe losses Thursday, plummeting 9% to $32.70 a barrel.

The travel ban with Europe will only amplify the sharp declines in demand caused by the coronavirus. Hit by shuttered factories, canceled flights and empty highways, oil demand was already expected to decline this year for the first time in more than a decade.

That was before the announcement of the unprecedented travel ban, a move that will shut down countless flights for the foreseeable future.

The supply picture is just as gloomy for the oil market. Russia, seeking to deal a blow to the US shale industry, refused last week to go along with OPEC's desire to cut production. Saudi Arabia retaliated by promising to flood the market with cheap barrels.

Luxury goods consignment company TheRealReal (REAL) fell more than 12% as it warned that the coronavirus could hurt its operations.

As a result of the outbreak, the luxury goods owners that TheRealReal buys from might change their minds about letting the company’s staff into their homes to review items, according to a Wednesday securities filing.

The company said it could also decide to scale back or temporarily halt the service, called a White Glove consultation, to protect its employees.

Most consignors preferred this approach, TheRealReal said, so any disruptions could affect its business. TheRealReal also noted that luxury goods purchases tend to decline in periods of economic uncertainty and that the virus could affect the operations of its retail stores.

The company said March 4 that it had opened a new location in San Francisco. TheRealReal had previously announced a $96.7 million net loss for 2019.

Correction: An earlier version of this post's headline incorrectly stated how coronavirus could hurt TheRealReal's business

ocs resumed trading at 9:50 am ET, after the New York Stock Exchange halted activity following a 7% drop in the S&P 500.

Trading was briefly halted for the second time this week as stocks dropped following the president's travel ban speech.

The New York Stock Exchange has a series of "circuit breakers" in place to calm investors' nerves when they're panicked.

Stocks tripped a circuit breaker Thursday morning shortly after trading began.

The S&P 500 fell by more than 7%, halting trading for 15 minutes. The circuit breaker tripped for the first time during this rout on Monday, as coronavirus fears grew and oil prices plunged.

The next circuit breaker would be if the market falls by 13%. That would pause trading for another 15 minutes.

If the market plunged 20%, everyone would go home: Trading would stop for the day.

Circuit breakers pause and ultimately halt trading to avoid a repeat of "Black Monday" on October 19, 1987, when the Dow crashed 22.6% in a single day.

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The NBA season's suspension is particularly bad news for the parent company of one of the marquee basketball franchises. Shares of New York Knicks owner The Madison Square Company (MSG) plunged 11% in early trading Thursday. That follows a nearly 10% drop Wednesday.

MSG also owns the New York Rangers hockey team. The NHL has not announced any plans to cancel games or hold them with no crowds as of yet.

The fact that the Knicks are not playing any time soon is obviously bad news for MSG and its many workers. The Knicks have remained a major draw, with strong attendance despite a lousy record for the past few years.

Analysts at media research firm LightShed Partners poked fun at that in a report Thursday morning, saying that the regional cable channel MSG Networks (MSGN), which also plunged nearly 10% Thursday, wouldn't be hurt too badly if the NBA had no postseason.