The effects of the coronavirus outbreak in China, specifically the
actions taken
by governments and certain private sector companies to contain the
spread of the respiratory ailment, are being felt across a wide swath of
the globe’s economy.
Governments in the U.S., Europe and Asia have
restricted visitors to China while returning citizens are screened
(mostly for high temperatures) for potential infection.
Major airlines, including American, United and Delta, have suspended flights to China.
Pharmaceutical, financial and tech companies are pulling out expatriate employees.
Apple plans to close all of its stores and
corporate offices in China through February 9. It is also dealing with
work stoppages at factories that produce components for its wares sold
around the world.
Levi Strauss & Co., McDonald’s and Starbucks
have closed thousands of outlets around China, in part to comply with
the government’s request for people to remain off the streets.
The demand for crude oil has dropped, leading to a
16% tumble in prices since the outbreak was announced (China is the
world’s largest importer). Refinery use plummeted 15% last week alone.
Chinese markets dropped sharply on Monday after
reopening for the first time since January 23. The benchmark Shanghai
Composite Index was off 7.7%, its steepest one-day decline since August
2015.
Many global firms are cueing their actions from
the World Health Organization (WHO) which declared the outbreak a public
health emergency last week despite it being less deadly than SARS and
still largely confined to Wuhan (there have been ~140 reported cases in
~20 ex-China countries thus far).
About 14,500 Chinese have been infected to date,
although this figure is certainly underreported, with ~700 deaths. For
comparison purposes, the flu epidemic in the U.S. in 2017/18 infected
48M Americans and killed 61K.
ETFs:
THW,
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GRX,
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GDNA,
KMED,
XLV,
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CHIX,
CHII,
KURE,
FHK,
FLHK,
CHIH,
ZHOK
