Asian stocks in a sea of red as risk sold into coronavirus fears
|- Global stocks ready for marking the worst week since 2008 as coronavirus heavies the risk-tone.
- MSCI’s Asia-Pacific gauge outside Japan lost more than 9.0% in a week, Japan’s NIKKEI down 4.6% daily.
- The US 10-year treasury yields drop the record low.
The coronavirus-led risk aversion shows its full color during the Asian session on Friday. While portraying the same, the headline equities are on their way down to register the worst week since 2009 while the US and Australian 10-year treasury yields drop to a fresh record low.
Following the latest numbers, the World Health Organization (WHO) is pushed to accept that it has the ability to trigger a global emergency. On the other hand, global rating agencies like Moody’s and Fitch also cited fears of the China-based virus that has spread into the major economies including the US and EU off-late.
The US government is all prepared to tame the deadly virus after finding initial cases. Though, this doesn’t help to increase the odds that are currently showing near 100% chances that the US Federal Reserve will announce a rate cut in its March meeting.
That said, the MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan is down 2.46% with Japan’s NIKKEI losing 4.63% while heading into the European session. Stocks in China are near 3.0% down while those of India follow the footsteps with the BSE SENSEX close to 38,572. Hong Kong’s Hang Send is 2.84% down to 26,020 while South Korea’s KOSPI and Indonesia’s IDX Composite are both near to 4.0% in the red. Oil trades near 13-month low while struggles around $1636 by the time of writing.
Given the broad risk-off, Reuters came out with the news that global funds are on their way to register the first cut in equity exposures by the end of February.
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