Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

All Your Questions About The Coronavirus And The Stock Markets Answered

"If it was easy to predict, I would be rich and so would you."

"Stock market crash!" read the panicked headlines last week, after the spread of the coronavirus continued with outbreaks of COVID-19, the disease the virus causes, in Iran, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and the United States.

The resulting fear caused the US stock market to have its worst week since the start of the 2008 recession.

But should people be stressing about the market upheaval? Is your money at risk? We look at the experts for advice on how the coronavirus is affecting the markets.


What exactly is going on and why is the stock market freaking out?

Markets really don't like uncertainty, because it makes it hard for businesses to plan. So the spread of a potential global disease fuels huge panic.

Investors have been selling their stock to get their money out of the market, or into "safer" investments. Last week $5 trillion was wiped from global financial markets.

The Dow - short for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index of 30 major blue-chip stocks that is often used as an indicator for the market itself -had its single biggest one-day drop in history, falling 1,191 points on Thursday.

But the drop felt even more dramatic because two weeks earlier the Dow hit a record high.

"Part of the stock market decline is the result of stocks being overvalued," economist Mark Weisbrot, codirector of Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington think tank focused on economic policy, told BuzzFeed News -meaning the drop was partly just the market correcting itself.

While it was the biggest point drop in history, there have been much larger drops in terms of percentage of the Dow overall. For some historical comparison, the Dow dropped 4.4% last Thursday, however during the Wall Street crash of 1929, it dropped 13% one day and 12% the day after.

Plus, it's not like years and years of investment gains got wiped out last week.

"The stock market saw its worst week since the financial crisis as coronavirus fears gripped markets," said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com, in a statement. "But the market is still higher than it was as recently as last August."


Which stocks are being most affected?

All of them! But oil stocks plummeted as travel has been cut, factories across China closed, and manufacturing and deliveries halted.

"For now, what we know for sure is that the month of February will record the worst oil demand contraction since the Great Recession," said Claudio Galimberti, head of demand, refining, and agriculture analytics at S&P Global Platts, a financial information company, in a statement.

"We also know that global aviation will be hit very hard across Asia and take months to get back in shape," said Galimberti.

Many companies in the US -including Twitter, CNN, and Amazon -have said they are cutting employee travel to try to reduce the disease's spread.


How will COVID-19 outbreaks across the world affect the US?

The US stock market is often pretty robust, even when other economies are struggling.

"The US is not completely insulated, of course, from the global economy, but it's nowhere near as dependent as most people think it is," said Weisbrot, noting that imports only count for around 15% of the US GDP (gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced annually).

That means that 85% of what we consume in this economy is made in the US and makes the country less vulnerable to international upheaval.

People may think of manufactured products, "but most of what we consume is services," such as health care or transport, noted Weisbrot.

But US economic policies can determine how much other countries suffer from the coronavirus.

Weisbrot noted that US sanctions against Iran and Venezuela may contribute to the spread of the virus there, noting that in Venezuela "it’s the sanctions that’s keeping this economy from having the basic infrastructure, including water, for people to be able to avoid a public health nightmare."


Is the media just panicking?

On a day-to-day basis, there aren't stories written about the markets having an OK day, so we usually only read about either record highs or scary crashes.

"I got a note today from a reporter saying, 'What are you going to do today to calm the markets?'" Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. "Really what I might do today to calm the markets is tell people to turn their televisions off for 24 hours."

Weisbrot noted that the focus on the markets by the media was misguided, because "the stock market is not the economy, and it shouldn’t be treated so much as such."

And it's also investors who are panicking.

"There’s a whole psychological component to all of this," said Weisbrot.

Frank Cappelleri, an executive director at Instinet, told the Wall Street Journal the market is being swayed by "human emotions."


How does this affect me, a normal person and non-billionaire?

"The majority of people don't own any stock at all, even in retirement accounts," said Weisbrot. He noted that around 10% of people own around 80% of stocks, so only a small percentage of people -the wealthiest - are truly affected when a stock market crash happens.

A Gallup poll last September found just 55% of Americans own stocks, including in a 401(k) or IRA, the two most common forms of retirement accounts.

Weisbrot also noted that rising stock prices are not necessarily a good thing for everyone, because it may reflect an increase in profits beneficial to a shareholder, but not reflect an increase in wage to a worker at the company.

"The main concern should be actually to public health," said Weisbrot. "The two are related, but if you get the public health part right, the stock market will take care of itself."


Is my 401(k) or retirement savings account screwed?

Retirement accounts are invested in the stock market because historically that's the safest way to ensure that your money grows. But retirement accounts are also usually very diversified -meaning they are split between a wide variety of stocks, bonds, and other investments to ensure they can handle market uncertainty.

Young people in particular should not worry or try to cash out their retirement investment funds, experts said. Because they are built to weather the drops over many years, there is plenty of time to make up for any losses, and taking out money early will ensure a huge loss in compound interest.

"If you’re in there for the long haul, the conventional wisdom is basically true," said Weisbrot.

Plus, it's a good opportunity to "buy the dip" -also known as buying when prices are low.


What's going to happen next?

No one knows yet! A major reason for the market's volatility is uncertainty.

But, stocks go up, and stocks go down, and then, usually they go up again. And on Monday, the Dow closed back up 1,200 points.

So wash your hands, and try to stay calm.

"If it was easy to predict," said Weisbrot, "I would be rich and so would you."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×