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Global stock markets weighed down by virus fears

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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, Feb. 19, 2020. Brendan McDermid, Reuters

NEW YORK — Coronavirus fears weighed on global stock markets Thursday as investors headed for the exits even after China reported a big drop in new cases and eased borrowing costs to cushion the epidemic’s economic impact.

After powering to a record close the day before, traders fearing the virus could spread and harm the global economy, or simply capitalizing on high prices to take profits, sent Wall Street into the red.

But Art Hogan of National Holdings said the drop on Wall Street “much more that we have not taken a pause for a bit. It’s healthy.”

“We’ve been up since October; we have not had two down days in a row in the S&P 500 yet this year,” Hogan said.

Meanwhile, Vice Chair of the US Federal Reserve Richard Clarida said in an interview with CNBC the US economy has “solid fundamentals.”

That echoed the upbeat findings of regional business surveys, and the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank’s manufacturing index released Thursday, which jumped to a 3-year high.

However he warned the virus, could have a “noticeable impact on Chinese growth” and potential hurt production elsewhere.

The world’s second-largest economy, plays a key role in global supply chains, and investors are hoping central banks will do what is necessary to protect corporate earnings and economic growth.

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) lowered prime rates for one-year and five-year loans, but the moves were “not nearly enough,” said Stephen Innes of AxiCorp.

The bank’s actions still helped the Shanghai stock market reach a 1.8 percent closing gain.

But as Wells Fargo analysts noted, “Newly confirmed cases are quickly increasing in South Korea, although reported cases in China appear to be moderating.”

In Europe, stock markets were well down by the close, but London outperformed as a weakening pound gave a fillip to stock prices in the export sector.

Air France-KLM shares plunged after the airline reported that the coronavirus had blown a large hole in 2020 earnings to date while separately unveiling lower profits for 2019.

After European bourses shut, the International Air Transport Association said that worldwide airline revenue lost to the virus was projected at $29.3 billion, mostly in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in China.

The dollar rose against all its major rivals, with many analysts pointing to its safe haven status amid the coronavirus crisis.

However, Matt Weller, head of market research at GAIN Capital, said politics also were playing a role.

An “underappreciated driver” for the greenback, he said, “may be the prospects for President (Donald) Trump to get reelected.”

Gold, another popular safe-haven investment, continued firm after reaching a 7-year high on Wednesday.

Oil prices rebounded as hopes spread that the impact of the virus on economic growth, and therefore crude demand, will be limited.

KEY FIGURES AROUND 6 A.M. FRIDAY IN MANILA 

New York – Dow: DOWN 0.4 percent to 29,219.98 (close)

New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.4 percent to 3,373.23 (close)

New York – Nasdaq: DOWN 0.7 percent to 9,750.96 (close)

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 7,436.64 points (close)

Frankfurt – DAX 30: DOWN 0.9 percent at 13,664.00 (close)

Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.8 percent at 6,062.30 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 1.1 percent at 3,822.98 (close)

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 23,479.15 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: UP 1.8 percent at 3,030.15 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng: DOWN 0.2 percent at 27,609.16 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0782 from $1.0805 at 2200 GMT

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2883 from $1.2920

Euro/pound: UP at 83.89 pence from 83.63

Dollar/yen: UP at 112.08 from 111.37

Brent Crude: UP 0.1 percent at $59.04 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.9 percent at $53.77

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Whooping cough is at a decade-high level in US

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — Whooping cough is at its highest level in a decade for this time of year, U.S. health officials reported Thursday.

There have been 18,506 cases of whooping cough reported so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. That’s the most at this point in the year since 2014, when cases topped 21,800.

The increase is not unexpected — whooping cough peaks every three to five years, health experts said. And the numbers indicate a return to levels before the coronavirus pandemic, when whooping cough and other contagious illnesses plummeted.

Still, the tally has some state health officials concerned, including those in Wisconsin, where there have been about 1,000 cases so far this year, compared to a total of 51 last year.

Nationwide, CDC has reported that kindergarten vaccination rates dipped last year and vaccine exemptions are at an all-time high. Thursday, it released state figures, showing that about 86% of kindergartners in Wisconsin got the whooping cough vaccine, compared to more than 92% nationally.

Whooping cough, also called pertussis, usually starts out like a cold, with a runny nose and other common symptoms, before turning into a prolonged cough. It is treated with antibiotics. Whooping cough used to be very common until a vaccine was introduced in the 1950s, which is now part of routine childhood vaccinations. It is in a shot along with tetanus and diphtheria vaccines. The combo shot is recommended for adults every 10 years.

“They used to call it the 100-day cough because it literally lasts for 100 days,” said Joyce Knestrick, a family nurse practitioner in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Whooping cough is usually seen mostly in infants and young children, who can develop serious complications. That’s why the vaccine is recommended during pregnancy, to pass along protection to the newborn, and for those who spend a lot of time with infants.

But public health workers say outbreaks this year are hitting older kids and teens. In Pennsylvania, most outbreaks have been in middle school, high school and college settings, an official said. Nearly all the cases in Douglas County, Nebraska, are schoolkids and teens, said Justin Frederick, deputy director of the health department.

That includes his own teenage daughter.

“It’s a horrible disease. She still wakes up — after being treated with her antibiotics — in a panic because she’s coughing so much she can’t breathe,” he said.

It’s important to get tested and treated with antibiotics early, said Dr. Kris Bryant, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at Norton Children’s in Louisville, Kentucky. People exposed to the bacteria can also take antibiotics to stop the spread.

“Pertussis is worth preventing,” Bryant said. “The good news is that we have safe and effective vaccines.”

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AP data journalist Kasturi Pananjady contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Scientists show how sperm and egg come together like a key in a lock

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How a sperm and egg fuse together has long been a mystery.

New research by scientists in Austria provides tantalizing clues, showing fertilization works like a lock and key across the animal kingdom, from fish to people.

“We discovered this mechanism that’s really fundamental across all vertebrates as far as we can tell,” said co-author Andrea Pauli at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna.

The team found that three proteins on the sperm join to form a sort of key that unlocks the egg, allowing the sperm to attach. Their findings, drawn from studies in zebrafish, mice, and human cells, show how this process has persisted over millions of years of evolution. Results were published Thursday in the journal Cell.

Scientists had previously known about two proteins, one on the surface of the sperm and another on the egg’s membrane. Working with international collaborators, Pauli’s lab used Google DeepMind’s artificial intelligence tool AlphaFold — whose developers were awarded a Nobel Prize earlier this month — to help them identify a new protein that allows the first molecular connection between sperm and egg. They also demonstrated how it functions in living things.

It wasn’t previously known how the proteins “worked together as a team in order to allow sperm and egg to recognize each other,” Pauli said.

Scientists still don’t know how the sperm actually gets inside the egg after it attaches and hope to delve into that next.

Eventually, Pauli said, such work could help other scientists understand infertility better or develop new birth control methods.

The work provides targets for the development of male contraceptives in particular, said David Greenstein, a genetics and cell biology expert at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the study.

The latest study “also underscores the importance of this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry,” he said in an email.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Turn Your Wife Into Your Personal Sex Kitten

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