Why Monday's stock market panic is 'overdone'

Fox Business anchor Melissa Francis said on “Outnumbered” that she thinks Monday’s “panic in the market” is "overdone," reacting to the day’s sharp selloff.


Francis made the comment as U.S. equity markets were drastically lower Monday after an oil price war broke out between Saudi Arabia and Russia and the new coronavirus showed signs of spreading.


The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by as many as 2,046 points, or 7.9 percent, in the opening minutes of trading while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were lower by 7.4 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively. The Dow and S&P 500 were on track for their biggest drops since December 2008.

“This downdraft is not about this coronavirus response this morning,” Francis noted. “It’s about what’s going on in the oil markets and we see this massive selloff in oil because Russia and Saudi Arabia were cooperating.”

She added, “It’s an oversupply in oil in the market and they were cooperating to support price. Now they are not.”

Francis then noted that there is now a price war as it pertains to crude oil.

“A lot of regular people have said, ‘Why is this bad for Americans?’ Because it might signal a recession or bring on a recession,” she noted.

Francis went on to note the connection to the novel coronavirus.

“The reason why the price of oil is falling is because people aren’t traveling so this is really important,” she said.

“What’s important is we have the right people in Washington right now,” Francis continued. “This is what [the president's chief economic adviser] Larry Kudlow has been saying. We have [Treasury Secretary] Steve Mnuchin. We have a president who understands credit markets and understands that as you see companies be threatened by a possible recession, by the low price in oil, that they know to how to respond in a very targeted way in order to support businesses and the economy and I think this panic in the market today is overdone.”