Wall Street losses deepen after Fed emergency rate cut over Coronavirus

US stock markets fell sharply on Tuesday on worries that even a half percentage-point cut in interest rates might not be enough to stave off the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak and halt the worst sell-off in more than a decade.

It was the Federal Reserve's first emergency rate cut since the 2008 financial crisis, underscoring how grave the central bank views the fast-evolving situation.

Stocks initially jumped more than 1 per cent on the news, but gains soon petered out as analysts and traders worried whether pumping more money into financial markets would address the central problem -