Asia share market mostly lower on Monday, 24 February 2020, as the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic from China to neighboring countries amplified worries about the impact on supply chains and global economic growth.
The spread of the virus inside and outside of China has been unsettling the regional market. The coronavirus outbreak contains a significant likelihood of impact to the global economy and the potential to become a black-swan type event. Economists at Standard Chartered Bank on Friday estimated that COVID-19 epidemic could affect 30% of China's imports and 10% of its exports, prompting them to lower their gross domestic product forecast for China this year to 5.5% from 5.8%.
China reported a jump in new cases on Friday, while South Korea became the latest hot spot with 100 new cases and more than 80 people tested positive for the virus in Japan. South Korea has reported 48 more cases, bring its total infections from the novel coronavirus to 204, and in Japan, officials from Tokyo and Osaka said they wouldn't hold large events such as school graduation ceremonies and entrance examinations for three weeks through mid-March, in an effort to contain the viral outbreak.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said Friday that there are 76,767 confirmed cases of the illness and 2,247 deaths, marking another day in which the number of new cases world-wide has slowed.
IHS Markit said business in the U.S. contracted in February for the first time in four years owing to disruptions caused by the coronavirus and growing angst over the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. The forecasting firm said its activity indexes for both manufacturers and service-oriented firms declined this month. And the service sector index turned negative for the first time since 2015. In a big surprise, the index covering the large service side of the economy sank 4 points to 49.4, IHS Markit said Friday. A reading of less than 50 indicates a contraction in activity.
Powered by Capital Market - Live News