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Economic impact of coronavirus 'could exceed Sars'; Apple hits record high – business live – The Guardian, Theguardian.com

Economic impact of coronavirus 'could exceed Sars'; Apple hits record high – business live – The Guardian, Theguardian.com

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Coronavirus worries have kept a lid on the London stock market today.

The FTSE index has closed just 2 points higher at 7, 602 – still points down this week after Monday’s troubles.

Connor Campbell of SpreadEx blames the risk of a Chinese slowdown:

The market rebound petered out on Wednesday afternoon, investors struggling to justify the gains in the face of the latest coronavirus news.

Probably the most relevant headline came from Chinese government economist Zhang Ming, who warned that the country’s first quarter growth may fall under 5% as the virus spreads, with the forecast based on a mid-February peak for the outbreak. Given investors freaked out as China’s GDP dropped to 6.0%, a reading more than 1% under that is a potential nightmare.

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