Early trading on Thursday morning saw global share prices go into free-fall as the continued spread of coronavirus threatens to greatly impact international trade. The crash also followed a Wednesday-night speech by President Donald Trump announcing that “all travel from Europe to the United States” would be suspended for 30 days.

Though the Trump administration quickly clarified that only “human travel” from Europe would be restricted, and not trade, Thursday morning’s share price downturn indicated a lack of investor confidence in the new measures’ effectiveness.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by around 8.2 %, driving US indexes further into bear market territory, while Nasdaq fell by 6.5% and the S&P 500 by 7%.

The widespread losses triggered the market’s “circuit breaker”, automatically halting trade for 15 minutes to interrupt the steep decline in prices. Once trading resumed, however, stocks continued to plummet.

Every share in the FTSE 100 was trading lower before markets closed, with the UK’s main share index having suffered a fall of more than 9% in value.

Indexes in Frankfurt and Paris also fell, as did Asian markets, as Japan’s Nikkei 225 index closed 4.4% lower than previously.

While companies have suffered worldwide, travel companies saw some of the worst blows to share prices, with airline conglomerate IAG facing a 10% drop.