Asian shares underperform, bonds soar as nCoV anxiety presses

TOKYO- Asian shares sunk down on Wednesday after the United States warned that further spread of novel coronavirus may end up as a global emergency. The announcement dragged Wall Street and tied earnings on safe-haven Treasuries to low grounds.

The S&P 500 .SPX and the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI lost 3% on Tuesday’s session, sinking further to its four straight session of inactivity. Heavily affected by this is the MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan which shed 1.28%.

Yields on 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasuries fell flat on low grounds as gold became the sought after asset mainly from investors’ worries that the virus may drag down the global economy further.

The World Health Organization said that China’s novel coronavirus cases have reached ceiling level, but wariness that further contagion outside china is likely to keep investors on edge.

“What we are seeing is share markets are playing catch up,” said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney.

“Other asset markets have been flashing warning signs for weeks. A corrective bounce in equities is possible, but we still have a lot of downward momentum,” he added.