Coronavirus outbreak continues to dominate the headlines. Global markets fell on Friday due to the ongoing situation. According to Bank of America, coronavirus crash wiped about $9 trillion off stocks as of Thursday.
On March 6, the Nikkei 225 dropped 2.72% to close at 20,749.75. Shares of index heavyweight and conglomerate Softbank Group declined 6.07%. The Topix index fell 2.92% to end its trading day at 1,471.46.
South Korea’s Kospi index declined 2.16% to close at 2,040.22. Moreover, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell by more than 20% as of its final hour of trading.
Importantly, mainland Chinese stocks also experienced problems on Friday. The Shanghai Composite fell 1.21% to about 3,034.51. At the same time, the Shenzhen component declined 1.1% to 11,582.82. Moreover, the Shenzhen composite dropped 0.74% to approximately 1,915.17.
On Friday, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 2.81 to close at 6,216.20.
Stock indexes in Europe also fell on Friday. For instance, U.K’s FTSE 100 was trading 3% lower on Friday morning. Meanwhile, Germany’s DAX fell 3.5%, and France’s CAC 40 was 3.6% weaker.
Stocks and S&P Global Ratings
The S&P Global Ratings downgraded its economic outlook for the Asia Pacific. Coronavirus outbreak could wipe $211 billion from a household, corporate, and government incomes. Moreover, the ratings agency decided to lower the economic growth from 4.8% to 4.0%.
According to the ratings agency, China’s economy will likely grow by just 4.8%.
Some industries may suffer even bigger losses as the outbreak is far from being over.
Importantly, airlines could lose $113 billion in sales if the virus continues to spread, based on the information provided by the International Air Transport Association.
Starbucks expects a 50% decline in sales at stores in China during the January-March quarter.
Last but not least, the global outbreak will affect Japan and South Korea. Consequently, domestic supply and demand will fall due to the outbreak.
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