Chinese stocks led sharp losses across Asia on Thursday as the spread of the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, spooked investors ahead of Saturday’s Lunar New Year holiday.
The Hang Seng index
HSI,
See how the stock market has performed during other virus outbreaks.
Japan’s Nikkei index
NIK,
That marked the second straight year of red ink in trade for last year, hurt by a slowdown of demand in China. China’s trade tensions with the U.S. has hurt Japan’s trade, with Japan’s exports for 2019 falling 5.6% from the previous year, while imports fell 5.0%.
Japan had a trade surplus of 6.6 trillion yen ($60 billion) with the U.S. last year, as exports fell 1.4% from 2018, and imports fell 4.4%.
Australia’s S&P;/ASX 200 benchmark index
XJO,
The story was compiled from Dow Jones Newswires and Associated Press reports.
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