Coronavirus panic pushed the world stock markets which again fell on Friday, with an index of global stocks setting its largest weekly fall since the 2008 global financial crisis, and over $5 trillion wiped from global market value this week. U.S. stocks shaved most of the day’s losses late in the New York session but only the NASDAQ eked out a positive close. The Dow lost nearly 3,600 points this week and the S&P 500 posted a double-digit weekly percentage loss for only the fifth time since 1940.
Yields on U.S. government bonds, widely seen as the world’s most secure asset, ended the day near the fresh record lows.
Disruptions to international travel and supply chains, school closures and cancellations of major events have all blackened the outlook for a world economy that was already struggling with fallout from the U.S.-China trade war.
Hopes the epidemic, first detected in China in December, would be over swiftly and economic activity will quickly return to normal have been shattered. Countries other than China now account for about three-quarters of new infections.
