Tokyo's Nikkei 225 slipped 1.0% to 22,205.00 and the Kospi in Seoul lost 1.8% to 2,122.54. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 sank 1.1% after its biggest airline, Qantas, announced it plans to cut at least 6,000 jobs and keep 15,000 more workers on extended furloughs to survive the coronavirus pandemic.The airline said it will slash costs by billions of dollars and raise fresh capital, while grounding 100 planes for a year or more and immediately retiring its six remaining Boeing 747 planes.
The rise in new infections is stoking worries that reopenings of businesses closed earlier to fight the pandemic may have to be curtailed, despite indications that economies are recovering from lockdowns that are being eased in the U.S. and other countries. "Renewed fears of the COVID-19 spread and fresh tariffs reign ... in guiding market sentiment midweek as riskier assets lose favour among investors," Pan said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.6% to 25,480. The Nasdaq, which was coming off its second all-time high this week, shed 2.2% to 9,909.17. The Russell 2000 index of small company stocks gave up 3.4%. Coronavirus hospitalizations and caseloads have hit new highs in over a half-dozen U.S. states and new cases nationwide are near their peak level of two months ago.
Umm, doesn’t the sign show the index rising?