What event triggered the 2020 global stock-market crash and circuit-breaker closures?
Answer
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the 2020 global stock-market crash and its circuit-breaker closures.
As the coronavirus spread internationally in February and March 2020, investors anticipated lockdowns, business closures, travel restrictions, unemployment, and a severe economic contraction. Stock markets dropped rapidly, and several exchanges activated circuit breakers designed to pause trading during extreme declines.
The crisis was intensified by an oil-price shock in March, when disagreements between Saudi Arabia and Russia contributed to a sharp fall in crude prices. The S&P 500 entered a bear market on March 12, 2020, and reached its crash low on March 23. Governments and central banks then introduced exceptionally large fiscal, monetary, and public-health responses.
The pandemic triggered the crash, but it did not determine every market outcome by itself. Investors also reacted to interest rates, policy announcements, vaccine news, and expectations of economic reopening. The rapid recovery in many major indexes later in 2020 does not erase the speed or severity of the initial collapse.