It was another brutal day for stock markets as Wall Street hit critical circuit breaker levels only minutes after the US opening bell on Thursday!

The S&P 500 tumbled 7% consequently halting all trading on the New York Stock Exchange for 15 minutes. Even when US markets restarted, all major indices fell below -8% as risk aversion intensified on fears around the coronavirus global pandemic. With investors are clearly keep a safe-distance from riskier assets amid the chaos, US stocks are positioned to extend loses which could trigger the level 2 circuit breaker – marked as a 13% decrease against the prior day’s S&P 500 closing price.

Focusing on the technical picture, the S&P 500 is heavily bearish on the daily charts. A solid daily close below 2500 could open the doors towards 2450.

It was the same story with the Dow Jones with bears in the driving seat as prices tumbled over 7.5%. Prices are approaching the 21500 support level as of speaking. Weakness below this level could encourage a decline Ttowards 21300.

One would have expected Gold prices to exploit the risk aversion but this was not the case on Thursday afternoon.

The precious metal found itself under renewed selling pressure, shedding over 3% as institutions and traders offloaded their Gold holdings to cover margin requirements for stocks. An appreciating Dollar also added to the pain with prices trading marginally below $1580 as of writing.

A solid daily close below this level should open the doors towards $1555.

Currency spotlight – GBPUSD 

A growing sense of unease over how badly the coronavirus outbreak will hit the UK economy is haunting investor attraction towards the British Pound.

Market players are waiting for fresh details on the U.K response to the coronavirus pandemic after the emergency rate cut earlier this week. The overall uncertainty should result in the Pound weakening against the Dollar and other G10 currencies in the short to medium term.

The GBPUSD is trading around 1.2626 as of writing and could test 1.2550 in the short term.