**7. Economic impact**

The stock market collapse of 2020 was a serious and unprecedented global phenomenon that started on February 20, 2020 and lasted until April 7, 2020 (**Figure 4**).

A transitional bear was experienced in the market due to the COVID-19 disaster, but the bull returned by April 2020; it went on through December 2020

#### **Figure 3.**

*Total confirmed cases per country as of 10 May 2021. 10,000,000+ 1,000,000–9,999,999 100,000–999,999 10,000–99,999 1,000–9,999 100–999 1–99 0 [this file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19\_pandemic#/media/File:COVID 19\_Outbreak\_World\_Map.Svg.*

#### **Figure 4.**

*Movement of WTI (West Texas intermediate) price of crude oil from 2019. The collapse began on February 20, 2020. For the first time, on April 20, 2020, the prices went down to minus digits in petroleum history. Reference: Sheppard, David; McCormick, Myles; Brower, Derek; Lockett, Hudson (April 20, 2020). "US oil price below zero for first time in history." financial times. Retrieved April 20, 2020.*

#### **Figure 5.**

*Retail experienced a 40–60% plummet in footfall in Mar 2020. Reference: Inc., Aislelabs (April 2, 2020), how retailers globally are responding to coronavirus by Aislelabs, retrieved June 2, 2020.*

despite the inability of the US markets to return to the levels of January 2020. This downturn remained until November 2020 because of a slowdown due to COVID-19 (**Figure 5**) [60–64].

The unexpected economic downturn due to COVID-19 trailed economic development and continued growth following the revival of a global monetary setback in 2009. Human history has given rise to unprecedented worldwide joblessness, an all-time low, while the quality of life has gradually settled to a better position worldwide. Over time, the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak—the most menacing upsurge since the Spanish flu of 1918—set out to eradicate the entire economy. The slowdown of the global economy occurred due to the pandemic and the panic caused by it; the equilibrium of demand and supply disrupted the market beyond measure. There is no denying that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also spotted other diminishing variables before COVID-19, like a global synchronized slowdown in 2019, suggesting the already vulnerable condition of the market [65–70].

Although the collapse started on February 20, 2020, there was a considerable boost in sales in the first fortnight of March 2020. The collapse witnessed many serious daily falls in the stock market worldwide, the largest fall being on March 16; it was termed as 'Black Monday II' as there was a 12–13% fall in most of the business worldwide [71–73]. Two more important collapse dates became obvious: March 9, termed 'Black Monday I' [74–76], and March 12, termed 'Black Thursday' [77]. Banks and reserves worldwide lowered their cash flow and interest rates to manage the stock; furthermore, they offered the markets and investors extraordinary assistance to cope with the situation [78–80].
