Next week, focus will again remain on cornovarius developments. As the virus hit transport, travel and tourism sectors all over the world, investors will be waiting for more stimulus measures from central banks and governments. The ECB holds monetary policy meeting on Thursday and UK will publish Spring Budget for 2020 on Wendesday. In the US, main releases include inflation and consumer confidence data. Other important events to be followed are UK monthly GDP, Eurozone and Japan final Q4 GDP figures; Germany industrial output; China consumer and producer inflation; Australia business and consumer morale; and India inflation and industrial production.

The number of people infected with the coronavirus across the world surpassed 100,000 on Friday, with many governments and central banks stepping up efforts to combat the epidemic. In addition, authorities are asking citizens to work from home, closing schools and cancelling large gatherings and events. The outbreak has already killed more than 3,300 people globally.

Wall Street sold off once again on Friday despite a late comeback that pared some losses, as coronavirus fears more than offset US data employment. On Friday, data showed that nonfarm payrolls increased by 273 thousand in February, climbing the most since May 2018 and comfortably beating market expectations. Meanwhile, the jobless rate retreated to a 50-year low of 3.5 percent. However, fears of a global recession triggered by mounting coronavirus cases more than offset solid domestic macro data and dragged equities, while the 10-year Treasury yield tumbled below 0.7% for the first time ever. The energy sector suffered deep losses, as oil prices plummeted more than 10% after OPEC’s allies rejected additional output cuts. The Dow Jones plunged 256 points or 1% to 25865. The S&P 500 sank 52 points or 1.7% to 2972. The Nasdaq tumbled 163 points or 1.9% to 8576. On the week, the Dow gained 1.8%, the S&P 500 0.6% and the Nasdaq 0.1%.

The US trade deficit narrowed to USD 45.3 billion in January 2020 from a revised USD 48.6 billion in the previous month and compared to market expectations of a USD 46.1 billion gap. Exports declined by 0.4 percent, led by decreases in sales of capital goods and industrial supplies and materials. Meanwhile, motor vehicle and parts exports increased. Imports dropped at a faster 1.6 percent due to purchases of industrial supplies and materials, as well as imports of other goods. The politically sensitive goods trade deficit with China increased 5.1 percent to USD 26.1 billion, while that with the EU was 20.2 percent smaller at USD 12.2 billion.

The US economy added 273 thousand jobs in February of 2020, the most since May 2018, compared to an upwardly revised 273 thousand in January and market expectations of 175 thousand. In February, biggest job gains occurred in health care and social assistance, food services and drinking places, government, construction, professional and technical services, and financial activities. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for December was revised up by 37,000 from +147,000 to +184,000, and the change for January was revised up by 48,000 from +225,000 to +273,000. With these revisions, employment gains in December and January combined were 85,000 higher than previously reported. Disruptions caused by the coronavirus are expected to be shown only in the March report, as sectors such as hospitality, travel and transportation may start cutting jobs due to travel cancellations.

China's foreign exchange reserves fell USD 8.779 billion to USD 3.107 trillion in February 2020 from USD 3.115 trillion in a month earlier and compared with market consensus of a decline of USD 15.497 billion, amid a weakening yuan due to fears over the rapid spread of COVID-19 cases and its impact on the Chinese economy. The value of gold reserves went up to USD 100.85 billion from USD 99.24 billion at the end of January.

The DAX 30 tumbled 403 points or 3.4% to 11,542 on Friday, its lowest level since August 2019, as concerns about the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the economy mounted. The losses came in even after manufacturing orders data from Germany came in much better than expected in January. Investor focus will turn to the ECB meeting next week, as policymakers are seen cutting the deposit rate by 10bps in an attempt to support growth. Other stock market indexes finished in the red: the CAC 40 plunged 222 points or 4.1% to the lowest level in nearly a year; the FTSE MIB slid 755 points or 3.5% to a six-month low; and the IBEX 35 tanked 307 points or 3.5% to the lowest since December 2018.

The FTSE 100 plunged 243 points or 3.6% to 6,463 on Friday, its lowest closing level since the end of June 2016, as the spread of coronavirus in the UK accelerated. Concerns about the impact of the epidemic on growth raised expectations of an interest rate cut by the Bank of England later this month, while investors also await the government's 2020 budget next week on hopes it will unveil further fiscal stimulus.

Crude oil prices slipped nearly 9% to below $42 per barrel on Friday, a level not seen since August of 2016, after OPEC’s producer allies rejected calls from the Cartel to together cut almost 4% of global crude supply. OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, has recommended on Thursday to cut production by 1.5 million barrels per day to offset a slump in demand caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The COVID-19 outbreak already led major consultancies to slash their projection for global demand growth to the weakest level since the financial crisis.