The US stocks first gained 3.5%, then erased all gains and slipped to negative, and finally rallied to close the day near 5% higher, the biggest
one day jump since December 2018 on hope that US President Donald Trump would deploy ‘substantial’ fiscal measures to halt the freefall in
stock markets. But Trump didn’t make any appearance.
Wild US session volatility and disappointment on Trump soured the mood into the
European close and sent most Asian stock indices tumbling on Wednesday.
The FTSE (-0.09%) and the DAX (-1.41%) reversed gains to end
yesterday’s session in the negative territory. The ASX 200 tanked 3.60%, Nikkei slid 2.21%, as Hang Seng gave back 0.55%. Activity in US and
European futures hint that it may be another wild ride to the bottom on Wednesday.
In such a fragile market environment, Donald Trump
cannot afford to remain silent for too long. The longer he waits, the larger the damages to stock markets could be.
By Ipek Ozkardeskaya