Stocks Ended Sharply Lower, Oil Market Crashed

U.S. stocks ended sharply lower on Monday, tracking declines in oil prices as concerns over weak energy demand in an oversupplied market built up even further. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 592.05 points, or 2.44%, to 23,650.44. The S&P 500 declined 51.40 points, or 1.79%, to 2,823.16. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 89.41 points, or 1.03%, to 8,560.73.

The soon-to-expire May contract for the U.S. oil benchmark marked history on Monday, finishing deeply in negative territory, reflecting a growing glut of crude and a lack of storage space. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery finished down $55.90, or 306%, at negative $37.63 a barrel. The June contract ended down $4.60, or 18.3%, at $20.03 a barrel. Brent crude for June delivery finished down $2.51, or 8.94%, at $25.57 a barrel.

International Business Machines Corp posted quarterly revenue slightly lower than Wall Street expected, but beat profit targets as sales in its high-margin cloud computing business rose 19%. IBM’s total revenue fell 3.4% to $17.57 billion in the reported quarter. Net income fell to $1.18 billion, or $1.31 per share.