NEW YORK, Jan 28 ― Stocks markets tumbled worldwide yesterday as investor worries about the potential economic impact of the coronavirus drove up prices of safe-haven assets such as the Japanese yen and government debt.

China's yuan slid to a 2020 low and commodity-linked currencies such as the Australian dollar fell on mounting concern about the coronavirus. The yen was the main beneficiary, though its move higher was limited.

Crude prices dropped below US$60 a barrel for the first time in nearly three months, while gold prices surged 1 per cent to nearly a three-week high before paring gains.

Benchmark US Treasury yields fell to lows last seen in early October while the yield on 10-year German bunds, the euro zone benchmark, fell to the lowest in almost two months.

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Key indexes for British, French and German equity markets slid more than 2 per cent, as did pan-European markets. Stocks on Wall Street fell more than 1 per cent.

Major markets in Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Australia, were closed yesterday.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe shed 1.62 per cent to a three-week low, while its emerging market index lost 1.59 per cent.

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The broad FTSEurofirst 300 index in Europe closed down 2.26 per cent at 1,619.00, while the pan-European STOXX 600 index fell by the same amount.

More than 97 per cent of stocks in the STOXX 600 fell, with many tumbling from record highs. The rout wiped about €180 billion (RM806 billion) of market capitalisation from the index.

US stocks fell a bit less. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 453.93 points, or 1.57 per cent, to 28,535.8. The S&P 500 lost 51.84 points, or 1.57 per cent, to 3,243.63 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 175.60 points, or 1.89 per cent, to 9,139.31.

The Nasdaq had its biggest one-day decline since August 23 while for the Dow it was the biggest since October 2, closing lower for a fifth straight day in its longest losing streak since a five-day decline ending last August. The S&P 500 also posted its biggest daily drop since October 2.

Wall Street was overdue for a correction, said David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Funds in New York.

“We have a slow and steady economy, a giddy and fast market and eventually those two things have to meet in the middle somewhere,” he said.

The benchmark S&P 500 rose more than 12 per cent from the end of September to an all-time high last week.

“The market was due for a fall and coronavirus is a perfect case of an unknown unknown. An increase in uncertainty causes the market to fall but the real question here does it affect the global economy?” he said.

Kelly said he did not expect the outbreak to significantly change global economic growth or corporate earnings.

Still, the potential for the virus to spread exponentially was cause for concern, said Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Whether the virus scales to epidemic proportions “remains to be seen, but certainly that's not priced into markets,” he said.

China extended its Lunar New Year holiday and the Shanghai stock exchange said it will reopen February 3. More big businesses in China shut down and told staff to work from home as the death toll rose to 81.

The Nikkei share average in Tokyo slumped 2.03 per cent, its biggest percentage fall since August, with tourism shares hard hit.

Infections could continue to rise, China's National Health Commission said on Sunday. The total number of confirmed cases in China rose to 2,835.

Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist at SlateStone Wealth LLC in New York said investors are scared that the virus could lead to an economic slowdown but at the moment the market has overreacted.

“The market has been waiting for some sort of sell-off to develop after a roughly 30 per cent year and for a reason for it to happen,” Pavlik said.

Oil prices fell about 2 per cent after earlier sliding more than 3 per cent.

Brent crude slid US$1.37 a barrel to settle down at US$59.32, its lowest since late October and the biggest intra-day fall since January 8. US crude fell US$1.05 to settle at US$53.14 a barrel.

US Treasury prices advanced, pushing their yield lower.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes rose 23/32 in price to yield 1.6012 per cent.

The benchmark 10-year Bund yield fell 5 bps to -0.414 per cent.

Yields on tax-exempt municipal slid to all-time lows. The new 10-year MMD AAA GO yield of 1.18 per cent slid below the previous record low of 1.21 per cent set last August.

In the currency market, the dollar index rose 0.08 per cent, with the euro down 0.05 per cent to US$1.1018.

The yen strengthened 0.36 per cent versus the greenback at 108.89 per dollar.

US gold futures settled 0.3 per cent higher at US$1,577.4 an ounce, as spot gold climbed to US$1,586.43 earlier in the session, the highest level since January 8. ― Reuters