Asian stocks outside China remain depressed due to coronavirus

• MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan declines more than 4.0% this week.
• The US and Aussie 10-year Treasury yields drop the fresh record low.
• Coronavirus is spreading faster outside China, likely to affect the global supply chain.
• The holds coronavirus task force meeting today at 19:30 GMT.

The first case of coronavirus in the US, coupled with President Donald Trump’s measured comments, escalate the fears that the Chinese virus is yet to weigh on the global economy. Additionally weighing on the Asian equities were the rising numbers of the COVID-19 cases in South Korea.

That said, MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan declines near to 0.60% by the press time on a daily basis while losing more than 4.0% during this week. Further, Japan’s NIKKEI, -2.09% to 21,957, also fails to hide the fears that push the ruling parties toward more stimulus.

Not only the US 10-year treasury yields but the Australian 10-year bonds also dropped to the historical low during early Thursday.

Elsewhere, stocks in India have geopolitical problems at home as an additional burden to mark 0.85% losses whereas equities in Australia and New Zealand remain more or less 1.0% down following comments from the Aussie PM and the RBNZ policymaker.

On the other hand, Chinese stocks are mostly up 1.0% as the dragon nation cheers receding coronavirus numbers as well as the gradual reset of factories.

Investors will now take clues from the US task force meeting updates as well as any more coronavirus headlines. Though this doesn’t defy the US economic data/event as an important catalyst.