Global Stock Markets Worst in History​ | Pandemic over by June

Global Stock Markets

Worst in History

In a week that brought the wildest market swings since the financial crisis, Thursday hammered investors with something crazier - a 10% drop in the Dow, the end of the longest bull market on record and the biggest sell-off since 1987’s Black Monday.

At the end of the day, the S&P 500 smoldered 27% below records set barely three weeks ago and wiped out all its gains since the end of 2018. The news was even worse overseas: Europe’s benchmark index suffered its worst day in history. Brazil’s Ibovespa tumbled as much as 20%, extending this year’s loss to almost 50% in dollar terms. Canada’s main gauge was off more than 12%, its worst day since 1940.

The Dow fell 10%, the S&P 500 futures fell 10.6%, and the Nasdaq futures fell 10.5% in a stunning rout.

President Donald Trump finally offered some attempt at fiscal stimulus, but the measures fell flat. The European Central Bank took a stab by easing capital constraints and boosting liquidity, and losses only deepened. Not even an unprecedented plan for $5 trillion in bond-buying from the Federal Reserve could mollify investors rattled by the growing likelihood that the coronavirus will plunge the global economy into recession.

Ten-year Treasury yields erased declines and inched higher as policy makers’ liquidity pledge recalled the quantitative easing used during the financial crisis. Oil and precious metals fell, with palladium sinking more than 20%.

Thursday marked the greatest manifestation yet of how the one-two punch of the coronavirus and an oil-price war are destroying global growth prospects and fueling jitters around the world. Now investors are trying to guess at the effectiveness of policy makers’ efforts to limit economic damage, with Trump’s travel ban and tepid fiscal measures failing to impress most observers. Spirits were further damped by new bans on public gatherings in the U.S. and professional sports leagues’ move to suspend operations.

On another bruising day across markets:

The S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite and Nasdaq 100 indexes are all in a bear market now, with losses from February closing records extending well past 20%.The slump triggered the second 15-minute trading halt this week shortly after the U.S. open.The MSCI All-Country World Index extended losses to enter bear-market territory.The cost of insuring debt issued by Europe’s investment grade companies surged to the highest since 2016.Japanese stocks closed more than 4% lower even after another liquidity pledge from the country’s central bank. Australian shares sunk deeper into a bear market despite a stimulus plan there.Oil extended losses past 5%. Bitcoin took a dive. Gold fell below $1,600 an ounce.

More bad news about the impact of the coronavirus emerged throughout the day. The leading U.S. infectious-disease official said the testing system in the country is “a failing.” The European Union warned the sickness threatens to exceed health-care capacity across the region “in a few weeks or even days.” The National Hockey League followed the National Basketball Association’s lead and suspended its season, while Major League Baseball said opening day would be delayed.

Meanwhile, signs that companies in the hardest-hit industries were drawing down credit lines to battle the effects of the virus on their businesses added to anxiety.

Stocks

The S&P 500 Index declined 9.5% at the close of trading in New York; the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 10%.The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 11%.The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dipped 5.4%.The MSCI Emerging Market Index sank 6.6%.

TIANJIN

14 Days without New Cases

A medical worker carries protective suits at Jinyintan hospital in Wuhan

In Tianjin, ONLY 1 patient still under treatment in Tianjin Haihe Hospital. 

The city didn’t report any case of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) for the last 14 days.

According to the local health commission, 1 patient are stable. A total of 132 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospital. The commission said 2,615 close contacts had been traced and 182 of them still under medical observation.

天津连续14天无新增！

3月12日6时至18时，本市无新增新冠肺炎确诊病例。

截至目前，本市累计报告新冠肺炎确诊病例136例，其中男性73例，女性63例；普通型1例、治愈出院132例，死亡3例。疑似病例6例。累计排查密切接触者2615人，尚有182人正在接受医学观察。

从2月27日18时至3月12日18时，天津连续14天无新增新冠肺炎确诊病例。

Global Coronavirus Pandemic

will be over by June

Workers wearing protective gears disinfect as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a subway car depot in Seoul, South Korea

The coronavirus pandemic could be over by June if countries follow China's example of strict health measures, a Beijing medical adviser claimed today. 

Epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan urged countries to 'get mobilised' and 'intervene on a national scale' to halt a crisis which is now spiralling outside China.  

Families wear protective face masks as they walk with their luggage at Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport

Zhong, who is credited with helping to combat the SARS outbreak in 2003, warned that the current crisis would 'last longer' if countries 'do not treat the infectiousness and harmfulness seriously'. 

Beijing says that the 'peak of the epidemic has passed for China' with only a trickle of new cases and the number of new patients in Hubei province falling to single digits for the first time yesterday. 

Empty streets in Milan, Italy on March 11 as a man wearing a face mask in Piazza Duomo as restrictive measures are taken to contain the coronavirus outbreak

However, the outbreak is worsening outside China and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation. 

Italy is among the nations to have taken aggressive measures, shutting schools and shops across the country in a nationwide quarantine. 

In the U.S. Donald Trump has imposed a travel ban on Europe but has not announced any measures to stop the spread of the virus within America. 

Boris Johnson is facing growing pressure to implement drastic health measures in the UK, but has so far resisted calls to shut schools or ban public gatherings. 

疫情6月结束可期待！

疫情何时结束？目前疫情防控面临的问题是什么？12日下午，广东省举行疫情防控例行新闻发布会。国家卫健委高级别专家组组长、中国工程院院士钟南山回应公众关切。

钟南山：若各个国家能响应世卫组织的呼吁，采取国家层面的干预，各国都能动员起来，新冠肺炎疫情有望在6月结束。但这是基于各国采取积极措施的情况下做出的评估。

如果有些国家并没有把危害性和传染性看得很重，进行强烈干预，（疫情流行）可能还会延长。尽管冠状病毒在温度较高的夏天相对不活跃，但疫情多持续一两个月，对国民经济等都会有很大影响。

国外疫情和武汉早期相似

钟南山：国外死亡率达3.2%，已经很高，有点像湖北武汉早期的情况，说明当地医生和老百姓的警觉性还没有提高。

New Research shows COVID-19

Lingers in Air and on Surfaces

A study of environmental samples from the epicenter of Covid-19 outbreak sheds light on how the novel coronavirus can linger in the air and on surfaces, suggesting additional transmission pathways for the virus.

In the first field research of its kind, a group of researchers in Wuhan, Shanghai and Hong Kong analyzed 35 samples from hospitals and public areas in Wuhan, the central China city where the new disease first emerged. They measured the amount of viable virus carried by aerosol — tiny particle droplets in the air.

An employee in a drug store wraps protective face masks, due to a coronavirus outbreak, at Zaventem international airport near Brussels, Belgium

The study showed that the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, known as SARS-CoV-2, can remain viable in the air or on solid surfaces with the potential to infect people, according to a preprint of the study published by the biology research archive bioRxiv. The researchers didn’t say how long the pathogen may remain viable in the air and on surfaces.

Human respiratory droplets and direct contact are believed to be the main ways for transmission of the virus. The disease has sickened more than 125,000 people worldwide, making it the first pandemic declared by the World Health Organization since 2009.

In the absence of confirmed findings, experts have warned of possible aerosol transmission of the virus. China’s National Health Commission mentioned the possibility of aerosol transmission for the first time Feb. 5 in a Covid-19 treatment guide.

In the latest updated treatment guide issued March 4, the national health authority cautioned of potential transmission of virus through aerosols from feces and urine.

In the 2003 outbreak of the SARS coronavirus, a cousin of Covid-19, fecal transmission was believed to be the main cause of hundreds of cases at a Hong Kong residential complex, one of the areas hardest-hit by the disease.

An employee disinfects the glass over of a butcher counter to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in a food store in Budapest, Hungary

The latest study in Wuhan provides evidence that the new virus can be passed through aerosols, especially from fecal transmission. By using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method to quantify the virus RNA genome and determine aerosol RNA concentration, the study found high concentrations of the virus in aerosol samples collected from patient toilets at two Wuhan hospitals, suggesting the possibility of fecal transmission.

High amounts of virus were also detected in aerosol samples from hospital rooms where medical workers removed protective apparel, indicating that the virus could accumulate on the surface of protective gear and be carried by medical workers into the changing rooms, according to the study.

Low amounts of virus were found in samples collected from public areas, despite higher readings in samples from the entrance of a shopping mall and the public zone of the Wuhan University Renmin Hospital, where patients gathered awaiting doctor interviews, the research found.

The findings suggested that the novel coronavirus can remain viable in aerosols and accumulate on surfaces, causing the risk of airborne transmission.

The researchers suggested that people avoid public gathering and wear face masks to reduce exposure to the risk of contagion. Room ventilation, open spaces and proper use and disinfection of toilets can also effectively limit aerosol transmission, they said.

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