An increasing number of people faced a new reality as many were
asked to stay home from work, schools were closed, large gatherings
and events canceled, stores emptied of staples like toiletries and
water, and face masks a common sight.
In London, Europe's financial capital, the Canary Wharf district was
unusually quiet. S&P Global's large office stood empty after the
company sent its 1,200 staff home, while HSBC has asked around 100
people to work from home after a worker tested positive for the
illness.
In New York, meanwhile, JPMorgan divided its team between central
locations and a secondary site in New Jersey while Goldman Sachs
sent some traders to nearby secondary offices in Greenwich,
Connecticut and Jersey City.
The outbreak has radiated across the United States, surfacing in at
least four new states plus San Francisco.
More than 2,000 people were stranded on the Grand Princess cruise
ship after it was barred from returning to port in San Francisco
because at least 35 people aboard developed flu-like symptoms. Test
kits were delivered at sea to the vessel.
Moves by some major economies including the United States to cut
interest rates and pledge billions of dollars to fight the epidemic
have done little to allay fears about the spread of the virus and
the widening economic fallout.
SINKING MARKETS
European stocks continued their slide after the Japanese market
dropped to a six-month low, with 97% of shares on the Tokyo
exchange's main board in the red.
Airline and travel stocks have been among the worst hit as people
canceled non-essential travel.
"If this really ramps up, we could see a lot more kitchen- sinking
updates from the travel industry and airlines," said Chris
Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG. "What's impressive about the
current move is it probably understates the degree of disruption we
could be facing across the U.S. and Europe."
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The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes <US10YT=RR> fell to a record low
of 0.7650% as investors sought safe havens.
More than 98,000 people have been infected in over 85 countries and over 3,300
people have died, according to a Reuters tally. Mainland China, where the
outbreak began, has accounted for more than 3,000 deaths, while the toll in
Italy stood at 148.
At current rates, the number of confirmed cases of the virus will surpass
100,000 on Friday.
In the United States, the world's economic powerhouse, at least 57 new cases of
coronavirus were confirmed as the virus struck for the first time in Colorado,
Maryland, Tennessee and Texas, as well as San Francisco in California. Some 230
people have been infected in total, and 12 have died.
Google <GOOGL.O>, Facebook, Amazon <AMZN.O>, and Microsoft <MSFT.O> advised
employees in the Seattle area to work from home, after some caught the virus.
The companies' work-from-home recommendation will affect more than 100,000
people in the area.
The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed an $8.3 billion bill to combat the outbreak,
joining a slew of countries including China and South Korea in bolstering their
war chests.
(Additonal reporting by Steve Gorman and Cath Turner in Los Angeles, Hideyuki
Sano in Tokyo, Pamela Barbaglia, Karin Strohecker, Thyagaraju Adinarayan, Ritvik
Carvalho and Tommy Wilkes in London, Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Writing by
Pravin Char; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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