The footsie dropped 500 points at the week's start of trading this morning as global stock markets have continued to slide, fuelled by the unknown effect of the Coronavirus on world economies. In the US the extent of the share sell-off even triggered a 15 minute stabilisation break. This was part of a panic mechanism installed in 2013 to inhibit share selling feeding on itself, triggering more stop losses on the way down and causing a total meltdown. This was the first time it had been used in what is already been labelled "Black Monday".

This meltdown however, had already occurred in the oil markets, a reaction to Saudi price cutting, sending oil prices sharply lower at around 20 % from the start price but back from a near 30% low on the day.