S&P 500 Futures, US treasury yields and Asian stocks portray risk-aversion

• Asian equities follow the US stock futures, bond yields remain under pressure.
• Coronavirus fears keep weighing on the markets.
• The key economies in the West struggle with the pandemic, global rating agencies flash warnings.

With the pandemic fears looming large and strong, global risks remain on the back foot amid the initial week’s trading session on Monday. Among them, the US stock futures are more than 1.0% down whereas Asian equities and the US bond yields also follow the footsteps.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) infected the UK PM Boris Johnson last-week and triggered widespread risk-off. The moves got even stronger as US President Donald Trump warned to lock down the key states of the outbreak. However, the Republican leader took a U-turn during early Asia while anticipating the pandemic tally to peak in the next two weeks.

Further, Fitch cut the UK’s rating whereas Moody’s anticipate China’s shadow banking industry to shrink further. Additionally, private institutions like China’s Caixin, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs all came out with the negative notes due to the pandemic fears. Among them, JP Morgan’s forecast that the global GDP could fall at a 10.5% annualized rate in the first half of the year grabbed major attention.

While portraying the risk-off, the US 10-year treasury yields drop 10 basis points to 0.65% whereas Japan’s NIKKEI mark nearly 4.0% loss to 18,630 by the press time.

The US stock futures extend Friday’s losses with the benchmarks relating to S&P 500 and DJI30 down near 1.5% to respectively near 2,485 and 21,160 as of writing.

Investors may now look forward to the further clues relating to the coronavirus epidemic and its likely cure, Remdesivir, for fresh impulse.