Wall Street drops on oil price crash, earnings anxiety; Dow falls over 2%

Wall Street tumbled on Monday after US crude futures turned negative for the first time ever, with traders forced to pay to unload crude as the May contract expired during a global economic slump unleashed by the coronavirus outbreak.

The S&P energy index tumbled 3.7 per cent after the front-month May US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) contract actually turned negative, with sellers offering $37.63 a barrel to any traders willing to take it.

With billions of people staying home around the world due to the coronavirus, physical demand for crude has dried up.“What the energy market is telling you is that demand