Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 2.2% to 19,427.38. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 plunged 3.6% to 5,725.90. South Korea's Kospi shed 2.9% to 1,905.50. Chinese shares erased morning gains. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.6% to 25,238.08, while the Shanghai Composite dipped 0.5% to 2,980.50.
In Japan, a task force set up by the prime minister approved a 430 billion yen package Tuesday with support for small to medium-sized businesses. Other governments in Asia have announced billions of dollars' worth of stimulus and other measures to help protect their own struggling economies. By the end of trading, the S&P 500 was up 4.9%. It erased three-fifths of Monday’s loss, which was the sharpest since 2008, when global authorities banded together to rescue the economy from the financial crisis.
Treasury yields pushed higher on Tuesday but fell back early Wednesday. The bond market rang warning bells about the virus long before the stock market, and a rise in yields signals fear has receded a bit.The S&P 500 rose 4.9% to 2,882.23. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 4.9% to 25,018.16, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 5%, to 8,344.25.