The Australian dollar is fighting for life this afternoon as market jitters over coronavirus return. Today it’s at new 2020 lows:
Bonds are poised for record lows:
A delusional ASX is down but the hope is palpable:
S&P futures are down solidly:
The newsflow abroad and at home is not good. Apparently one must pay to be rescued and shoved into detention by the Morrison Government these days, at Domain:
Australians trapped in the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak will have to pay up to $1000 to be evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan to quarantine on Christmas Island.
Make those scabs pay! And, given they’re almost entirely ethnic Chinese Australians let’s not overlook the racism angle, either.
Meanwhile, in China, Ikea just shut down, at Star:
Sweden’s Ikea said on Thursday (Jan 30) that it has temporarily closed all its stores in China because of the outbreak of the new coronavirus.
Let me repeat. IKEA CHINA JUST SHUT DOWN. If ever there was a signal that globliasation is about to isolate China then that is it:
The WHO is moving in, way too late, at the BBC:
The “whole world needs to be on alert” to fight the coronavirus, the head of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme has said.
Dr Mike Ryan praised China’s response to the deadly outbreak, saying: “The challenge is great but the response has been massive.”
The WHO will meet on Thursday to discuss whether the virus constitutes a global health emergency.
…The WHO’s Dr Ryan said an international team of experts was being assembled to go to China and work with experts there to learn more about how the disease is transmitted.
“We are at an important juncture in this event. We believe these chains of transmission can still be interrupted,” he said.
Let’s hope so. At home, the news is quite unsettling, at The Australian:
Up to 200 passengers on a flight from Melbourne to the Gold Coast will be contacted by health authorities and warned they were travelling with a man infected with coronavirus.
Some passengers who were seated near the man could be forced into isolation.
The 44-year-old Chinese man – the first person in Queensland identified with the disease – flew from Wuhan to Melbourne, via Singapore, on January 22.
Time to cancel all flights to China. Uh oh, at Domain:
Monash University has postponed almost 900 exams scheduled for next week, upending the plans of 4000 students as it seeks to ward off the potential spread of the coronavirus.
The university is yet to detail when it will reschedule the exams, but has said any student planning to travel overseas after next week’s aborted exam period will need to alter their travel plans to fit around its revised timetable.
Otherwise expect a rising panic, at News:
A man has collapsed and died of a suspected cardiac arrest outside a restaurant in Sydney’s Chinatown after bystanders reportedly failed to perform CPR out of fears he had coronavirus.
A NSW Police spokeswoman said officers were called to the Masuya Suisan restaurant on Campbell Street in Haymarket just after 8.30pm on Tuesday night “following reports of a concern for welfare”.
…The spokeswoman would not comment on a report in The Daily Telegraph that bystanders refused to administer CPR due to coronavirus fears.
Australia is jumping up the coronavirus league table. With 8 cases and 41 under investigation in QLD plus god knows how many in other states, we are now running fourth globally behind Thailand, Japan and Singapore.
I’m sure we can get a medal if we really try.
Ditto Australian dollar.
