Caution recaptured world markets on Monday as a near 30% drubbing for U.S. WTI crude oil kicked off a busy week of data and earnings that will drive home the damage being inflicted by global coronavirus lockdowns.
Europe’s stock markets made a groggy start, with the pan-regional EUROSTOXX 600 flopping back into the red as London’s FTSE, Germany’s DAX and Paris, Milan and Madrid all fell more than 1%.
E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 tumbled nearly 2% too, after Wall Street had enjoyed a strong end to last week, though even that barely reflected the carnage in oil markets.
With some global storage facilities nearly full to capacity, the ‘front-month’ May benchmark U.S. crude contract was down $5.40, or 29.5%, to just under $13 a barrel — the