But facing an uncertain threat, and with interest rates in the eurozone already at historic lows, it's not clear how much she can do to help. The former head of the International Monetary Fund is known as a strong communicator with sharp political skills. It's the biggest challenge to date for President Christine Lagarde, who took the reins of the central bank just over four months ago. 'As the reaction to yesterday's UK measures has shown once again, economic tools are not the ultimate circuit breaker in a crisis that reflects a medical emergency,' Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, told clients Thursday. And that was before the Trump administration announced it was banning travel from Europe. The global selloff continued Wednesday even after the United Kingdom announced an emergency interest rate cut and massive fiscal stimulus package. What's expected: The central bank is poised to push interest rates deeper into negative territory, ramp up purchases of corporate bonds and announce fresh relief for banks, while calling forcefully for countries in the bloc to enact their own stimulus measures.īut don't expect markets to show much relief. With Germany and Italy now expected to fall into a recession as a result of the outbreak, the stakes are high. The question for the European Central Bank, which is due to make a policy announcement on Thursday, is whether it can buck the trend. Can the European Central Bank pull markets out of a tailspin?Ĭentral banks around the world have taken emergency steps to contain the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic in recent days - but the moves have done little to placate nervous investors, who have kept selling risky assets at a fast clip as panic grows. The confusion 'has left markets rattled,' Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid told clients on Thursday. He tweeted the ban would apply to 'people not goods' after stock futures tumbled on the prospect of a trade freeze. He was also forced to clarify he was not blocking goods from Europe, despite saying his ban would 'apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo' across the Atlantic. Investors had hoped that Trump would reveal more concrete measures to deal with the economic impact of the virus after touting a big stimulus program to come earlier this week. Shares of BP fell nearly 7% in early trading, while Royal Dutch Shell's stock is down about 5%. That's putting extreme pressure on energy companies.

Evaporating demand for fuel as people hunker down at home, along with the implosion of an alliance between Saudi Arabia and Russia, has led prices to a dramatic collapse in prices, which are now more than 50% below their recent high in January. Oil prices also fell again, with Brent crude, the global benchmark, dropping 5.9% to $33.68 per barrel. Shares of Delta are down 11% in premarket trading, while American Airlines stock is off roughly 13%. Air France KLM shares have lost 11% and British Airways owner IAG's stock is down 9%. Getting hammered: Airlines stocks have been hit particularly hard by news of the travel ban from Europe. And it's another sign that investors see a global recession looming. The rapid decline in stocks has brought an end to the longest bull market in American history.

Trump freefall