Asian stocks snap four-day winning streak amid broad risk aversion

With the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak gaining pace outside China, Asian stocks follow the footsteps of macro risks while marking losses ahead of the European session on Friday. The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific gauge outside Japan is down 2.0% whereas Japan’s NIKKEI marks 2.8% losses by the press time.

Stocks in China register fewer losses of near 1.0% but those from India, New Zealand and Australia keep following the footsteps of Wall Street. The US equity benchmarks flashed more than 3.0% losses each the previous day.

While global cases near the 100,000 mark, 12 deaths in the US are making the policymakers on the run. That said, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) mentioned that the virus can have -0.1% to -0.4% impact on global growth while weighing Chinese GDP by nearly 0.3%.

Diplomats in Japan stay ready to counter the pandemic while those from the US convey the lack of kits to test the virus. Further, Singapore blames Japan for its quarantine decision while Thailand says to give cash handouts to counter the epidemic. Moving on, the US Fed members keep turning down the much-anticipated call of another 0.50% rate cut during March.

As portraying this, the US 10-year treasury yields drop to the record low near 0.80% whereas the bonds in Japan and China also nosedived.

Investors may now keep eyes on the coronavirus headlines while waiting for February month employment data from the US for fresh direction.