The Quick Spread of Coronavirus is Impacting Global Economies and Markets
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bullish, bearish, and balanced point of view; sources are listed after the
Balanced section.)
The coronavirus, first identified on December 31, has killed 81 people in China and infected more than 2,800 worldwide including five in the United States. Coronavirus is an animal virus that has evolved to infect people. It is constantly adapting and mutating making controlling the outbreak a challenge. It can be spread between people not unlike the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) viruses. Given the rapid escalation of reported infections, the virus has the potential to spread to a point where it has an impact on companies involved in travel, vacation and health care. Further escalation could even impact the economic growth rate of China and its trading partners. World health officials are scrambling to contain the spread of the coronavirus. But are officials prepared to contain the spread of the impact of the virus on the world’s economies?