Reactions to stockmarket falls: Markets entering 'period of peak fear'

Equity investors ‘jolted into action’ as more coronavirus cases confirmed

Global stockmarkets have gone into freefall as worries about the pace of the spread of coronavirus intensified, with markets “entering the period of peak fear”, according to commentators.

Neil Wilson, chief market analyst for Markets.com, said the speed of the decline across markets this week had been "startling". He said: "The FSTE 100 tumbled on the open as European bourses took the hospital pass from Wall Street and Asia. At 6,570 the FTSE 100 is looking to breach the Christmas 2018 lows at 6536. If this fails to hold then we are looking at the market trading at pre-Brexit referendum levels." Market Movers Blog: FTSE 100 tumbles 4.5% as coronavirus spreads Wilson added: "Global stocks have entered correction territory and it's now that we can start to consider th...