March 20 (Reuters) - Volatility in financial markets across
geographies and asset classes is at record highs as the
relentless spread of the coronavirus outbreak threatens to
derail global economic growth, analysts at U.S. stock market
index operator S&P Global said.
The company, which runs Wall Street's Dow Jones .DJI and
S&P 500 .SPX indexes, said the only comparison for the past
month's sell-off on equity and other markets historically was
the 2008 financial crash.
All the main U.S. stock indexes have lost nearly 30% since
hitting record highs last month, with the benchmark S&P 500 off
more than $8 trillion in value.
Analysts at S&P Global noted that over 7,500 trading days
dating back to January 1990, five of the eight highest closing
levels for CBOE's volatility index .VIX , known as Wall
Street's fear gauge, occurred in the past week.
"Only the peaks in volatility that occurred during the 2008
financial crisis saw anything similar," said Tim Edwards,
managing director of index investment strategy at S&P Global.
"Over its long history, the S&P 500 has moved a little under
1% each day, on average. With VIX currently standing at four
times its long-term average of 20, daily moves in the S&P 500 of
around 4% are implied for the next month."