By Chris Becker
Wall Street staged a last minute rally to stave off the wide falls on European markets as the 4Q GDP print came in strong but also just as the WHO marked a global emergency for the Chinese coronavirus. Pound Sterling jumped as the BOE held fire on interest rate cuts while Bitcoin leaped higher after its recent breakthrough above the $9000 mark.
Looking at Asian share markets yesterday where mainland Chinese stocks remain closed, but the Hang Seng Index continued its big selloff, falling nearly 3% today, and losing over 5% since its return from the Lunar New Year holiday. The market finished at 26449 points, bringing it back to the start of December level and thus wiping out all of the Xmas rally. The impact of the outbreak has been large so far but could extend to a rout down to the 26000 point level at this rate:
