Coronavirus Fears Drive Stocks Down for 6th Day and Into Correction

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan asked all of the country’s schools to close for a month. Health officials in Germany reacted aggressively after a man with no known connection to anyone infected with the coronavirus had tested positive, closing schools and urging some who may have come in contact with him to stay home for two weeks.

In Italy, the number of coronavirus cases rose to 14, and in France they more than doubled to 38. “We have before us a crisis, an epidemic that is coming,” said President Emmanuel Macron of France.

In Europe, Denmark, Estonia, Norway and Romania all reported infections for the first time, joining Austria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, North Macedonia, Spain, Sweden and Britain. And concerns grew about the severity of the outbreak in Iran, the source of infections in many other countries. The government there said Thursday that 245 people had been infected — including a member of President Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet and six other officials — and 26 had died.

The outbreak hit foreign markets hard, too. The FTSE 100 Index in London entered a correction on Thursday, and stocks fell sharply in Paris, Frankfurt, Milan and Madrid, as well as Tokyo and Seoul.

The SP 500 is on track for the market’s worst week since the 2008 financial crisis, and other economic indicators are flashing warning signs.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/business/stock-market-coronavirus.html