$5 Trillion Wiped Out From World Stocks Amid Fastest Collapse In History MSCI ACWI collapsed from a record high into 'correction' in just five days. The plunge in global equities has wiped out more than $5 trillion in value, or equivalent to nearly Japan's annual GDP. On Thursday afternoon, Guggenheim's Scott Minerd said, "this is possibly the worst thing I have seen in my career... it's hard to imagine a scenario in which you can contain the virus threat," adding that "Europe and China are probably already in recession and US GDP will take a 1.5-2.0% hit." "The stock market could be down 15-20%... and would likely force The Fed's hand." Guggenheim's Scott Minerd says the coronavirus crisis is possibly the worst thing he's ever seen in his career: "This has the potential to reel into something extremely serious" pic.twitter.com/xLhhNm3u7t — Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) https://twitter.com/BloombergTV/status/1233113560265478144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); MSCI ACWI is a market capitalization-weighted index with broad equity market exposure across the world, plunged 10% in the last five days, its biggest drop since August 2011... The Dow Jones just saw its fastest collapse from an all-time peak since 1928, just ahead of The Great Depression. And the S&P 500 suffered its fastest peak-to-correction plunge ever... Perhaps record high valuations are unsustainable after all... As for the Federal Reserve’s ‘Not QE’ last-ditch effort to prop the stock market up last fall, all equity gains have been erased. As we noted yesterday, the worsening global threat from the virus prompted Goldman Sachs to revise its earnings growth story for 2020: "US companies will generate no earnings growth in 2020. We have updated our earnings model to incorporate the likelihood that the virus becomes widespread. Our revised baseline EPS estimates are $165 in 2020 (previously $174) and $175 in 2021 (previously $183), representing 0% and 6% growth. Our reduced forecasts reflect the severe decline in Chinese economic activity in 1Q, lower end-demand for US exporters, supply chain disruption, a slowdown in US economic activity, and elevated uncertainty. Consensus forecasts imply EPS will climb 7% in 2020 and 11% in 2021." The drop in stocks shouldn't be a total surprised given the plunge in EPS expectations... Global investors aren't waiting for economic data to hit to see how bad things have gotten since the virus has sent China into economic paralysis. They are selling first and asking questions later. Tyler Durden Fri, 02/28/2020 - 07:11