Asian shares faced another leg lower on Wednesday as the coronavirus sharply slows global growth, leading a gauge of world stocks to post its biggest quarterly decline in more than a decade and oil prices to trade near lows last seen in 2002.
Shares on Wall Street tumbled on Tuesday, with the Dow registering its biggest quarterly fall since 1987 and the S&P 500 its steepest quarterly drop since a decade ago on growing evidence of the massive downturn the pandemic will incur.
FTSE China A50 futures in Singapore were down 0.85% and Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.86% in early trade.
The first-quarter decline was the biggest on record for the S&P 500 as consumers hunkered down at home, leading businesses to announce massive staff furloughs and to shut temporarily.
The US economic activity is likely to be “very bad” and the unemployment rate could rise above 10% because of efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester told CNBC.
The US recorded 700 deaths in a single day from covid-19 for the first time on Tuesday, lifting total US fatalities from the disease to more than 3,700.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.35% in early trade. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.48% following modest gains in Europe. The index fell nearly 22% for the quarter.
* Asian shares faced another leg lower on Wednesday as the virus sharply slows global growth, leading a gauge of world stocks to post its biggest quarterly decline in more than a decade.
* Denting sentiment further was data that showed that U.S. consumer confidence dropped to a near three-year low in March as households worried about the economy’s near-term outlook amid the epidemic, which has upended life for Americans.
* The Federal Reserve is ready to do more to help a U.S. economy ground to a sudden halt as businesses shutter and people stay home to slow the virus, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said on Tuesday.
* China will make further targeted cuts in the reserve requirement ratio for medium- and small-sized banks to help cushion the impact of the outbreak, state media reported on Tuesday.
* Japanese manufacturers turned pessimistic for the first time in seven years in the three months ended March, the central bank’s “tankan” survey showed, as the pandemic dealt a heavy blow to business activity.
* Some countries’ banking systems might have to be recapitalized or even restructured, if their economies are severely handicapped by prolonged disruption from the outbreak, officials at the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.
