U.S. stocks fell sharply once again on Tuesday as oil prices continued their unprecedented wipeout.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 700 points, or more than 2%. Tuesday’s losses brought the Dow’s two-day decline to nearly 1,300 points. The S&P 500 dropped 3.3% while the Nasdaq Composite fell 3.9%.

Traders were focused on the strange happenings with oil futures once again, which raised concern about deep losses for the energy industry hitting the U.S. economy even further. On Monday, the May contract for oil futures expiring Tuesday fell to zero and then went to an actual negative price, meaning producers would pay for someone to take the oil off their hands. The bizarre move has to do with the fact that because of the coronavirus shutdowns, big buyers of oil like refineries don’t need any more oil because their tanks are nearly filled.

Source: CNBC