Wednesday brings the Dow’s five-day losing streak to 2,390 points, erasing 8.15% off the blue-chip gauge. It’s the biggest five-day percentage loss in two years.

“This is the pullback that everybody says was long overdue and that will shake out some of the weak hands,” said Ivan Feinseth, chief investment officer at Tigress Financial Partners. “It’s all coronavirus. Every time the market starts to rally, another case pops up.”

New cases outside China exceeded those within its borders for the first time Wednesday, the World Health Organization reported. Investors are increasingly waking up to the potential fallout from an outbreak that has claimed nearly 3,000 lives, upended global supply chains, dramatically slowed travel and taken a bite out of corporate earnings. Oxford Economics says the virus could slow global growth to its lowest levels since the financial crisis.

Wall Street’s demeanor darkened significantly Tuesday after officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the virus would inevitably take a toll on the United States and asked businesses and local communities to prepare for its impact. The Dow on Tuesday endured its worst two-day slump in four years, with the index chalking up back-to-back 3% declines.

Wednesday saw an early rebound, with the Dow advancing more than 400 points before turning negative. The reversal came after Germany announced that it was on the brink of an epidemic and Bloomberg News reported that a Food and Drug Administration official said the virus was on the “cusp of a pandemic.”

“Today’s 652-point swing in the Dow shows that there are buyers out there, but more investors are waiting on the sidelines, looking for better bargains,” said Howard Silverblatt of S&P Dow Jones Indices.

“No one knows for sure how much further this decline may have to run, but excesses have quickly been wrung out,” said Sam Stovall of CFRA Research.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index on Wednesday dropped 12 points, to 3,116. The broad S&P has lost 7.97% in the past five sessions. That is also the biggest loss in two years. The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite broke a losing streak by finishing up 15 points to close at just over 8,980.

“The recent market carnage saw the S&P 500 futures fall 9% from the record high, and investors are nervous we could see further short-term weakness as history suggests outbreaks could take several months before the longer-term bullish trend reasserts itself,” Ed Moya, an analyst with Oanda, wrote Wednesday. “Until the global spreading of the virus appears under control, we could see continued downward revisions to growth forecasts.”

Overseas, investors shared Wall Street’s jitters. Europe’s benchmark Stoxx 600 index closed nearly flat, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed down 0.7%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed down nearly 0.8%.

Oil prices continued to fall, a reflection of the lower demand across the globe brought on in part by the coronavirus’s shackling of Asian economies. The U.S. oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate sank deeper below the $50 per barrel “make or break threshold,” trading at $48.71 late in the day. That’s its lowest price in a year. Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell to $52.75 per barrel.

Bond yields skirted near all-time lows. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rebounded slightly from Tuesday’s all-time low. Yield drops as the price of a bond rises.

White House officials are playing down the threat posed by the outbreak. Larry Kudlow, President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser, said late Monday that investors should consider “buying these dips.” On CNBC this week, Kudlow said he did not expect the Federal Reserve to react to the coronavirus and cut interest rates to juice the economy. He said there is “no supply disruption” appearing in the numbers that the White House is studying.

“We have contained this. We have contained this. I won’t say airtight, but pretty close to airtight,” Kudlow told CNBC in an interview Tuesday.

Publicly, Trump has said the coronavirus is “very well under control,” but privately he has been furious about the stock market’s slide, according to people familiar with the president’s thinking who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal details. After the Dow’s drop-off of more than 1,000 points Monday, Trump tweeted: “Stock Market starting to look very good to me.”

The outbreak has hobbled China’s powerful manufacturing sector, causing major supply-chain disruptions that have dampened revenue forecasts in a variety of industries. Retailers including Nike and Starbucks have closed stores in China, while Apple and Tesla have warned of the virus’s impact on their profitability. As scores of airlines reduce service, air travel demand is slated to decline this year for the first time since the financial crisis, with the virus costing the airline industry $29.3 billion, the International Air Transport Association warned this week. China’s idled factories and shut-in consumers have delivered a tough blow to the auto industry, which is expected to experience a 2.5% decline in 2020 global auto sales, according to a new report from Moody’s.

“Negative psychological momentum continues to build,” Wayne Wicker, the chief information officer at Vantagepoint Investment Advisers, wrote in commentary Wednesday. “While they have initiated reductions, analysts will continue to be taking earnings estimates lower to reflect ongoing disruptions in supply chains and manufacturing.”

CAAT director-general Chula Sukmanop said on Wednesday (February 25) that one proposal is for a 50-per-cent reduction through year’s end in fees charged to the airlines – for landing, parking, office rentals and other services.

Others would see the two-week process for approving requests for flight adjustments shortened and

passenger-service charges halved to encourage more people to fly.

Nearly 9,800 flights to Thailand scheduled for March have been cancelled, representing a loss of three million passengers, Chula said.

Credit Suisse Group is also among lenders starting to implement alternative work arrangements in South Korea, adding Asia’s fourth-largest economy to the list of areas where staffers are being moved into different offices. That way, operations can continue should an infection prompt the closure of one location, according to people familiar with the matter. Banks are considering similar moves in Japan.

Firms from Shanghai to Hong Kong and now Seoul are rethinking how they work and travel to keep staffs safe and ensure that business continues. Deals involving Chinese companies have slumped, as have initial public offerings in Hong Kong. HSBC Holdings and Singapore’s three biggest banks have warned that the virus may force them to set aside more money for soured loans.

In South Korea, infections have topped 1,200, making it a new hot spot for the virus, that has killed more than 2,700 people globally. Infections in South Korea jumped from 51 a week ago, with a U.S. soldier stationed in the country becoming the first reported American military case. About two dozen countries including Singapore have levied restrictions on travelers from South Korea, while flights and tour-group trips to the nation are being canceled.

In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for major sporting and cultural events to be called off, postponed or scaled down over the next two weeks, saying the move was crucial in preventing the domestic spread of the virus. Japan has 164 confirmed cases.

The rapid spread of the virus has prompted the Bank of Japan to ask major banks about their preparedness for a worsening of the outbreak, people with knowledge of the matter said. Initial findings from the talks indicate that large financial institutions are well placed to deal with the situation, the people said, asking not to be identified.

UBS has put South Korea on a so-called level 2 as part of it business continuity planning, in line with Hong Kong and Singapore. China is categorized at level 3, signaling the highest risk, one of the people said.

South Korea is rated as an “increased caution” at HSBC, meaning that business travel can continue but that employees should reconsider the need for the trip and avoid the heaviest hit areas of Daegu and Gyeongbuk, a spokeswoman said. Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered have also restricted travel to and from South Korea.

Morgan Stanley employees traveling from South Korea, or in close contact with someone who has been there, need to work from home for 14 days afterward, a person said.

Representatives for the banks declined to comment on the measures.

Banks are also starting to take measures in northern Italy, where more than 250 people have been infected. Many large companies, including Unicredit and Fiat Chrysler, have asked employees to work from home and cut back on business travel.

Economists have slashed this year’s growth forecasts for China to about 5.5%, compared with 6.1% last year. With most of Southeast Asia heavily reliant on China-linked supply chains and tourism, that has meant growth downgrades in the region as well: Thailand, for example, is seen slowing to barely above 2% this year, from 2.4% in 2019.

Almost all of Southeast Asia’s top six economies have cut interest rates this year, and economists are betting on more to come. On the fiscal side, Singapore has taken the lead with significant support to cushion its economy from the impact of the virus.

“We had previously expected the dovish wave in 2019 to subside, as global growth bottoms out and picked up slightly in 2020,” said Edward Lee, an economist for South and Southeast Asia at Standard Chartered in Singapore.

Given the virus outbreak, “we had already seen quite a few economies easing monetary policies and some sanctioning fiscal policies to mitigate the impact,” Lee said, with more rate cuts likely in Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Here’s how the growth outlook and policy reaction are shaping up across Southeast Asia:

– – –

– Indonesia

Southeast Asia’s biggest economy hasn’t recorded any confirmed coronavirus cases, but is calling on leaders worldwide to brace for a larger-than-expected hit to growth. Beyond trade and tourism, Indonesia is vulnerable to losses in exports of coal and palm oil, for which China is a major customer.

The central bank on Feb. 20 lowered its forecast range for economic growth this year to 5%-5.4%, from 5.1%-5.5%.

– Policy response

Bank Indonesia cut its benchmark interest rate Thursday after three straight holds, with Governor Perry Warjiyo pledging to keep policy “accommodative.” The next rate decision is set for March 19.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said in a Bloomberg Television interview earlier this week that the government still has fiscal space to act without violating its budget-deficit limit of 3% of GDP. She said the government will increase payments to low-income households and is considering a tax break for companies if the situation turns “severe.”

– – –

Thailand

Heavy reliance on tourism, particularly from China, leaves Thailand among the most exposed in the region as travel restrictions weigh on the sector. The government estimates that the number of visitors could drop by about 2.8 million compared with last year, to 37 million. Receipts from Chinese visitors slumped 10% in January from the same time in 2019, according to Tourism Ministry data.

The baht, the strongest currency in the region last year, has plunged in 2020. Officials have said they’re comfortable with further currency weakness.

– Policy response

The Bank of Thailand cut its interest rate to a record low Feb. 5, and said it has more room to ease. Its next scheduled meeting is March 25.

Long-awaited budget legislation has been approved by parliament and awaits royal assent, with an expected 400 billion baht ($12.6 billion) in investment likely to filter through to the economy.

– – –

Singapore

Singapore has won praise for its anti-virus strategy, with new cases dwindling after several weeks in which the city-state had the highest number of confirmed cases outside China.

The government last week lowered the midpoint of its 2020 growth forecast to 0.5% from 1.5%, following last year’s 0.7% expansion, the weakest in a decade.

– Policy response

The Monetary Authority of Singapore, which uses the exchange rate as its main policy tool, said Feb. 5 that the Singapore dollar had room to weaken, fueling bets that the central bank will ease policy. The MAS’s next scheduled decision is in April.

The 2020 budget unveiled last week envisions Singapore’s biggest deficit since at least 1997. It included S$800 million ($573 million) in targeted measures to counter the virus, and S$5.6 billion in additional support for households and businesses to shore up the ailing economy.

– – –

Malaysia

The virus outbreak has punished the ringgit and threatens to lessen growth in Malaysia, which was already the weakest last year since 2009. A political crisis is stalling a planned fiscal response, further clouding the outlook for the economy.

– Policy response

Bank Negara Malaysia cut its benchmark interest rate Jan. 22, even before the spread of coronavirus made major news. The bank’s chief has said there’s more space to act as inflation remains low. The next planned decision is March 3.

– – –

Philippines

The Philippines is seeing a significant hit to tourism, with the government estimating about $445 million a month in losses for the sector. Travel restrictions also have affected work schedules for thousands of Filipinos employed overseas, whose remittances make up about 9% of GDP.

The economy is considered less vulnerable than others in the region, with authorities projecting a 0.7 percentage-point hit to GDP this year if the virus lingers through year’s end.

– Policy response

The central bank was among the first in the region to cut its benchmark interest rate in response to virus risk, on Feb. 6. Officials have said there’s “a lot of room” to cut further.

– – –

Vietnam

Vietnam is highly exposed to coronavirus risk through its tight supply chain with neighboring China. Schools have been closed, thousands of workers have been quarantined and flights between China and Vietnam have been suspended.

Exports plunged in January as the outbreak was setting in, and government officials have said economic growth this year could slow to less than 6% after reaching 7% last year. Officials are maintaining their target of 6.8% growth in 2020.

– Policy response

Vietnam’s central bankers have ordered commercial lenders to give loan relief to virus-hit businesses. So far there have been few hints of any forthcoming fiscal support.

– – –

Bloomberg’s John Boudreau, Sunil Jagtiani, Yudith Ho and Siegfrid Alegado contributed to this report.

The figure represents a 2.46-per-cent year-on-year increase.

Total spending among foreign tourists last month was down 3.6 per cent, to Bt188.8 billion, the ministry said.

There were 2.39 million arrivals from East Asia, up 3.55 per cent, and they spent Bt97.46 billion, down 2.26 per cent.

The number of visitors from other Southeast Asian countries grew by 12.25 per cent to 836,788, with total spending of Bt25.47 billion, up 11.14 per cent.

Some 1.03 million Chinese visited, down 3.71 per cent, with spending of Bt49.38 billion, down nearly 10 per cent.

Arrivals from Europe rose 3.4 per cent to 916,493, spending Bt61.96 billion, down 2.65 per cent.

Arrivals from North and South America dipped 3.3 per cent to 166,321, with spending of Bt10.85 billion, down 9.31 per cent.