TOKYO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Asian shares and U.S. stock futures fell on Friday, stimulated by doubts about development in the advancement of drugs to deal with COVID-19 and brand-new evidence of U.S. financial damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
SUBMIT PICTURE: A pedestrian wearing a face mask walks near an overpass with an electronic board showing stock information, following an outbreak of the coronavirus illness (COVID-19), at Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai, China March 17,2020 REUTERS/Aly Song
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.4%. U.S. stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, were down 0.72%.
Shares in China, where the coronavirus initially emerged late in 2015, fell 0.25%.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq turned negative at the close on Thursday after a report that Gilead Sciences Inc’s antiviral drug remdesivier had failed to assist significantly ill COVID-19 clients in its first medical trial.
Gilead stated the findings were inconclusive because the study performed in China was terminated early.
The markets’ level of sensitivity to news associated to the medical treatment of COVID-19 showed financiers’ desperation for a sign of when the worldwide economy may s