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In Asia and Europe, stock markets were selling off at the start of the last week in February, after a rise in reported cases of coronavirus in Korea, Italy and Iran.
Investors fled to classic risk-off trades, with the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes falling below 1.4%.
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Amid the spread of coronavirus, concerns about slowing global economic growth and simmering trade tensions, the US stock markets had still performed strongly from the start of 2020 to mid-February.
By Wednesday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq had risen 8.5%, with the S&P 500 up 4.3%. Other national stock markets had done well, too: Australia up 6.9% and Italy up 7.3%.
Bonds haven’t returned quite so much, though UK gilts managed to put on 3% in the same period, with the Barclays Bloomberg US government/credit bond index up 2.5%.
