$130 billion lost in virus wipe-out

THE Australian share market has suffered its deepest three-day slide in more than four years amid fears global attempts to halt coronavirus are proving futile.

In a third broad-based sell-off in as many days, the benchmark ASX 200 index fell another 2.3 per cent yesterday, taking to $129.7 billion the amount stripped from the market this week.

It came as US authorities warned they were bracing for an outbreak of Covid-19 there, while Moody’s Analytics

forecast a pandemic would result in a global recession.

“The coronavirus has been a body blow to the Chinese economy, which now threatens to take out the entire global economy,” Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi said.

Mr Zandi said Moody’s previously put at 20 per cent the chance of the outbreak becoming a pandemic. It now rated the prospect at 40 per cent, he said.

“A pandemic will result in global and US recessions during the first half of this year,” he said.

“The economy was already fragile before the outbreak, and vulnerable to anything that did not stick to script.”

The coronavirus outbreak was “way off script”, Mr Zandi said.

The Aussie dollar touched a fresh 11-year low against the greenback, hitting US65.7c late yesterday.

The ASX 200 has now fallen 6 per cent since Monday.

Not since August 2015, amid concerns about an economic slowdown in China, has it fallen so heavily in three or fewer days.

The slide yesterday followed more heavy sell-offs in US and Europe.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 3.1 per cent lower — its second fall greater than 3 per cent in as many days.

The slump came as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a coronavirus pandemic appeared likely.

Senior CDC director Nancy Messonnier said: “It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen.”