Brazil’s currency the Real hit a two-month low against the dollar on Thursday, slumping to within sight of its record low under a wave of global risk aversion on fears over the coronavirus outbreak and its diminishing yield appeal.
Brazil’s largest meatpackers JBS SA and BRF SA said that the coronavirus outbreak could help boost Chinese demand for their products, as it fans concerns about domestic food safety in China. However some also believe sales could be held back by aggressive demands for discounts from Chinese buyers.
By Gwynne Dyer – In an emergency, the good thing about a dictatorship is it can respond very fast. The bad thing is it won’t respond at all until the dictator-in-chief says it should. All the little dictators who flourish in this sort of system won’t risk their positions by passing bad news up the line until the risk of being blamed for delay outweighs the risk of being blamed for the emergency in the first place.
Cruise line operators have canceled cruises to China after the outbreak of the coronavirus in China. The new virus that first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December has so far killed over 100 people and infected approximately 6,000 others.
President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that China was sure of defeating a devil coronavirus that has killed at least 106 people, but the international alarm was rising as the outbreak spread across the world.
China said on Tuesday that 106 people had died from a new coronavirus that is spreading across the country, up from the previous toll of 81. The number of total confirmed cases in China rose to 4,515 as of Jan 27, the National Health Commission said in a statement, up from 2,835 reported a day earlier.
China expanded drastic travel restrictions on Monday and prolonged a public holiday to contain an epidemic that has killed 80 people and infected more than 2,300, as several countries prepared to evacuate their citizens from a quarantined city at the outbreak's epicenter.
Fears over the global economic impact of the deadly China virus sent oil prices plunging more than on Monday to extend last week's sell-off, while safe-haven assets including the yen and gold rallied.
The official death toll from the coronavirus in China jumped on early Saturday to 41 from 26 a day before, as local media reported a doctor on the frontline of the battle to contain the virus in Wuhan city had died.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday it was “a bit too early” to declare a new coronavirus a global health emergency as China put millions of people on lockdown amid an outbreak that has killed 25 people and infected more than 800.