U.S. markets should stay open despite intense volatility, the head of the U.S. securities regulator said yesterday, quashing industry speculation that the government might shut down the country’s exchanges to stop a plunge in stock prices, Reuters reported. “Markets should continue to function through times like this,” Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Jay Clayton said, adding that the SEC was closely monitoring markets and was working with exchanges and market infrastructure providers to ensure they could continue to function. U.S. stocks plunged yesterday morning on mounting fears the coronavirus pandemic will cause a global recession, again triggering a circuit breaker which temporarily suspends trading. The S&P 500 index .SPX has lost nearly $6 trillion since its record closing high in mid-February. The turmoil prompted the U.S. Federal Reserve on Sunday to take aggressive action to buttress the economy and financial system, slashing interest rates to near zero, pledging hundreds of billions of dollars in asset purchases and backstopping foreign authorities with the offer of cheap dollar financing.
