Stocks drop, Treasury yields hit lower grounds as virus reach larger scale

TOKYO- Asian shares and US stock futures sunk on Friday after another session of defeat was monitored in Wall Street. The frail activity was mainly from disturbance to businesses brought by the compounding virus contagion outside China. In line with this, larger COVID-19 spread sparked concerns of a prolonged economic drag.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 1.3%. Australian shares and Japan’s benchmark Nikkei .N225 recorded 1.64% and 2.29% respective declines.

Ten-year Treasury yields reached new depths as two-year yields recorded its sharpest fall in more than three years. The drop followed after investors anticipated that the Federal Reserve is likely to implement easing to immediately pull bond spreads from contraction.

Such drag greatly affected the dollar which placed close enough to its six-month of underperformance against Japanese yen. The greenback also got poorly beaten versus Swiss franc and placed flat on a two-year low.