Global stock indexes continue to tumble, as the spreading coronavirus shows no signs of slowing down. With Italy reporting numerous confirmed cases, the virus is already spreading through Western Europe as well. The markets failed to recover, even after the President of the United States, Donald Trump, attempted to reassure that they are taking the necessary steps to contain its spread.
In a press conference given February 26th, US President Donald Trump addressed some of the issues surrounding the looming spread of the coronavirus.
Trump says that “if you can count on reports,” the number of infections in China are going down in the past two days. He also said that he puts Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the special Task Force handling the situation along with the nation’s top public health officials who would be reporting to him.
What is more, President Trump also somewhat speculated that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) might be exaggerating the seriousness of the virus. Without making a direct comparison, he outlined facts related to the general flu in the States, saying that a large number of people have lost their lives to it. He also pulled up a list which indicates that the United States is among the most prepared countries to handle the virus.
Despite Trump’s attempts to low-ball the effects of the virus and to somehow remedy the situation, markets continue to bleed.
The Nasdaq 100 Futures is down another 0.7% over the past 24 hours at the time of this writing. Major indices such as the S&P 500 closed at yet another 0.38% loss yesterday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) is down 0.46%, while Nikkei 225 lost upwards of 2.10% on the yesterday close.
The situation continues to escalate as Italy has reported up to 400 infections in the country, despite the international attempts to contain the spread of the deadly outbreak. This represents a surge of 25% in the past 24 hours and other European countries continue to announce new cases regularly.
The entire cryptocurrency market also tumbled overnight as Bitcoin dipped below $9,000 to fall down to as low as $8,500 before bouncing back up. BTC currently trades at around $8,800, charting a 4% decrease overnight.
Major altcoins are also bleeding out.
Ethereum is down almost 4%, XRP lost about 1.5% and EOS is 7.2% down over the past 24 hours. There are some altcoins which stand out, though, such as Tezos, charting an increase of about 7.3% in the same period.
It remains interesting to see how the market will respond to the increasing threats of the coronavirus, especially as traditional ones continue to tumble.
